Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 and Flip4: Will the foldable smartphone go mainstream?

Foldable smartphones, meanwhile, have reached a point where no introduction is needed. Samsung has two different lineups of foldable smartphones: the Z Fold, a normal-looking smartphone that you open like a book to bring the screen of a tablet to life. There’s also the Z Flip, which opens like an old-fashioned flip phone. Meanwhile, Samsung is actually the only manufacturer that you can take seriously when you buy a smartphone with a folding screen. Oppo, Huawei and Motorola are stuck at a conceptual stage, which means Samsung serves the entire market.

And according to Samsung, this market is ripe for the masses. In a press release, Samsung boasted that the foldable smartphone market grew 300% annually to reach 10 million. Sounds impressive. But if you put it in perspective, there isn’t an audience or a mainstream yet. According to market research firm Gartner, Samsung sold 272,327,500 smartphones in 2021, with a total of 1,433,859,400 sold. The number of foldable smartphones sold in a year will be 0.7 percent.

This may explain why a Galaxy Z Fold or Galaxy Z Flip is still a rare phenomenon among the general public. If we include the Kieskeurig smartphone page, the first foldable smartphone is ranked 201 at the time of writing. Mainstream could mean people are familiar with glamorous smartphones.

The latest generations of Galaxy Z Flip and Fold are almost indistinguishable from their third-generation predecessors. Still, there are welcome improvements. For example, both models have higher battery capacities, which is not an unnecessary luxury, especially for the Galaxy Z Flip. In our review last year, this was the biggest flaw.

Also, both smartphones feature the latest generation Snapdragon chipset, which outperforms Samsung’s own Exynos chipsets. The screen edges have also been made slightly thinner, the image quality has been upgraded, the cameras are slightly better and the Fold4 can handle the stylus, and the selfie camera is even better hidden behind the screen. Samsung also offers the possibility to design your own Galaxy Z Flip4: hinge color, accent color and panel color.

These are positive changes. But there is no significant improvement. Moreover, with high selling prices, the biggest obstacle is standing. And it’s not unthinkable that this is exactly what’s blocking these key sales figures.

However, it is not unthinkable that the third-generation Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Z Fold will still bring the foldable smartphone into the mainstream. The differences with the just-announced fourth generation are small. Also, Samsung has increased support for updates so a roughly one-year-old series is still a pretty sustainable choice.

It is not unthinkable that the Galaxy Z Flip3 and Galaxy Z Fold3 will be offered at lower prices. If Samsung manages to offer foldable smartphones for under 600 and 800 euros respectively, the financial barrier may be removed, after which the foldable smartphone will not only become mainstream, but the entire product line will remain under Samsung for now.