Samsung officially announced the latest Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip devices on July 10 at the Galaxy Unpacked event. Namely, the Z Flip6 and the Z Fold6, Samsung’s flexible devices pack some notable improvements like a new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, a new main camera and bigger battery for the Z Flip6, and a new flatter/sharper design for the Galaxy Z Fold6.
However, these hardware upgrades haven’t come for free. The Galaxy Z Fold6 and the Z Flip6 are $100 more expensive than their predecessors. The Galaxy Z Fold6 price starts at $1,899 vs the $1,799 of the Galaxy Z Fold5 (Buy it on Amazon), whereas the Galaxy Z Flip6 is set to cost $1,099 as opposed to the Galaxy Z Filp5’s starting price of $999 (Available on Amazon). Sadly, these increased prices might also have contributed to fewer pre-orders for Samsung’s newest foldables.
Galaxy Z Fold6 and Flip6 pre-orders fall short of predecessors' by more than 100,000 units
According to a report by ZDNet Korea, the Galaxy Z Fold6 and Z Flip6 have failed to match the record pre-orders enjoyed by last year’s Galaxy foldables in Korea.
The Galaxy Z Fold6 and Flip6 pre-sales figures in Korea reportedly came in at 910,000 for the July 12 to July 18 pre-order window. Although the numbers are impressive, they are 110,000 less than the 1.02 million pre-orders that Samsung got for the Galaxy Z Flip5 and Z Fold5 in its home market.
Additionally, Samsung has seemingly managed to move more Galaxy Z Fold 6 units than last year as the Galaxy Z Fold 6 to Galaxy Z Flip 6 pre-order ratio stood at 4:6 vs 3:7 for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 to Galaxy Z Flip 5.
Samsung also expects the sales to rise once the devices are officially available on store shelves as customer feedback has reportedly been positive.
While Samsung’s foldables might enjoy strong sales in their local market, increasing competition from Chinese brands such as Xiaomi are sure to drive the sales lower globally if Galaxy devices fail to offer a better value. In the absence of any revolutionary hardware upgrades, Samsung hopes that Galaxy AI does the trick. We’ll have to wait and see if Galaxy AI is actually the answer.