The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is available for preorder ahead of its July 24th release date, and it’s a foldable you should consider if you want a Samsung foldable and you’re ready to spend top dollar. The device packs high-end hardware, a few new Galaxy AI features, and a brand-new design that makes the Galaxy Z Fold 6 look better than its predecessors. The Fold 6 is thinner and lighter than before, and it’s also more durable.
That said, Samsung is still playing it safe with its designs, especially compared to its rivals. Days after Samsung unveiled the 2024 foldables, Honor launched the Magic V3 in China. The new foldable phone is even thinner than the Honor Magic V2, which stunned the world with its ultra-thin profile.
As exciting as the Galaxy Z Fold 6 design might be, the Samsung phone can’t match Honor’s foldable phones when it comes to thickness. But that might happen next year. Samsung reportedly wants the Galaxy Z Fold 7 to be about as thick as the Galaxy S24 when folded. The S24 has a 7.7mm profile, so that would be an incredible accomplishment.
Unfortunately, it sounds too good to be true. When unfolded, the phone would have to be under 4mm thin.
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The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is 12.1mm thick when folded, 1.3mm thinner than its predecessor. But the Honor phones are under 10mm thick when folded. A new report from The Korea Economic Daily says that Samsung mobile division chief TM Roh wants the Galaxy Z Fold series to be thinner than ever.
Roh reportedly asked Samsung engineers to develop an extra-slim foldable phone. The device, presumably the Galaxy Z Fold 7, would have to be as thin as the Galaxy S24 when folded, with a profile of around 7.7mm.
No smartphone vendor has managed to achieve that. The Magic V3 (9.2mm) is thinner than the Magic V2 (9.9mm), with Honor having shaved off about 0.7mm of thickness. Unfolded, the Magic V3 has a 4.35mm profile.
The upcoming Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 will reportedly be 9.47mm thick when folded. The handset should launch in China later this week.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is thinner than its predecessor, but it’s still thicker than rival folding phones. Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR
The same report says the Galaxy Z Fold 7 should also be lighter than the Fold 6, which weighs 239g. Obviously, the thinner the phone gets, the lighter it’ll be.
But I must say that the thinner foldable phones become, the more I worry about durability. The M4 iPad Pro, with its incredibly thin 5.1mm profile, is quite durable, but that’s not a foldable device. Any foldable phone thinner than 10mm when folded would have a thickness of under 5mm when unfolded.
But Samsung isn’t about to deliver a drastic drop in thickness. It won’t go from 12.1mm to 8mm immediately. Instead, the report says that Samsung will debut a Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim by the end of the year that will measure 10mm when folded. That sounds like the cheaper Galaxy Z Fold 6 model we’ve been waiting for.
Slimmer models will drop in the coming years. These phones will also have larger foldable displays. We’re going to 8-inch screens from the 7.6-inch display of the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
Making slim foldables isn’t just about the technology that lets the phone fold. Yes, you need durable, thin displays and thinner hinges. But you also need thinner batteries that can offer great battery life and, above all, an extremely efficient chip.
Apple isn’t making foldable phones, but rumors say it’s working on an ultra-thin iPhone. I said earlier this year that the purported iPhone 17 Slim might pave the way to a foldable iPhone. That’s because non-folding slim smartphones also need the same innovations as thin foldables.
Apple can develop those key components, like more efficient A-series chips and batteries with higher energy densities, while it waits for creaseless foldable screens to arrive. These components might then be used in a foldable phone.
If all these rumors are accurate, we might see ultra-thin phones in stores next year, including the iPhone 17 Slim and the Galaxy Z Fold 7.