Foldable phones were touted to be the next best thing last year, but, from what Samsung and Huawei have shown thus far, the technology does not seem to be completely ready for mass production. Moreover, the supply is relatively limited, as the production costs are still high and all the problems coming with the foldable screens have yet to be ironed out with new iterations. Nevertheless, Samsung is confident that this year’s Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Galaxy Z Flip 5G models could still sell well, and, apparently, the company is rumored to already be hard at work on three more models.
The source of this new rumor is the same one that reported on the existence of the Galaxy Fold 5G (@hwangmh01 on Twitter), yet this does not guarantee much. In any case, Samsung is allegedly working on the Galaxy Z Fold Lite, Galaxy Z Fold S and Galaxy Z Fold 3 models.
The Galaxy Z Fold Lite is probably the more affordable sub-US$1,000 version we have been hearing about for some months now. In order to reduce production costs, Samsung is supposedly employing a cheaper screen protective layer made of colorless polyimide (CPI). Next is the Galaxy Z Fold 3, most likely the successor of this year’s Z Fold 2 model, and this one is rumored to get S Pen support through a digitizer layer integrated underneath the protective Ultra Thin Glass layer. The inclusion of this feature may result in higher production costs leading to some of the spiciest price tags on a Samsung foldable. Last but not least, the Z Fold S may feature both inward and outward folding capabilities.