Samsung has unveiled its latest duo of foldable smartphones, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6. These bending gadgets are updates to Samsung’s existing folding phone range but pack in a few notable upgrades that could tempt you into taking the plunge and buying a phone that isn’t a solid slab of glass and metal.
The Z Fold 6 has a large internal folding display with a vertical crease down the middle so it opens like a book. There’s also a screen on the outside roughly the same size as a regular phone so you can use the gadget whether it’s open or closed. It’s designed to let you carry around a phone or a mini tablet in your pocket – but the asking price is an eye-watering £1,799, £50 more than last year’s Z Fold 5.
Compared to the Z Fold 5, the new Z Fold 6 has a squared-off body and screen and is slightly shorter and wider to hopefully make what is a large and heavy device that bit slimmer in your hand. It comes in attractive shades of silver, pink and navy.
The phone is also compatible with Samsung’s S Pen stylus for writing on the large inner screen, but this frustratingly does not come included. Neither new phone comes with a charger in the box either. The triple cameras on the rear look capable, but appear unchanged from the previous model.
On the other hand, the Z Flip 6 has had a bit of a glow up with a 50MP main camera that’s the same one found on the Galaxy S24 Plus. Samsung decided to make the back and sides of the flip phone matte glass, which looks and feels much better than the glossy glass on 2023’s Z Flip 5. You might think £1,049 is a lot to spend on a phone, but this smart looking device flips open and closed like your favourite flip phone from the early 2000s, is much smaller than a normal phone in your pocket or bag, and has a 3.4-inch screen on the lid when it is shut that lets you view notifications, reply to messages, and even run whole apps.
It also has a larger battery than before and comes in attractive blue, yellow, silver and mint colours, with other shades available if you buy directly from Samsung’s official website.
Both futuristic phones run on the powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the same chip found in the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and also come with an industry-best seven years of Android and security updates, which means these Android 14 devices will get updated all the way to Android 21 in 2031. They’re also IP48 water and dust resistant, so should survive an accidental dip in the pool.
Samsung is also ploughing ahead with stuffing the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 full of artificial intelligence (AI) features that vary from useful to gimmicky. These include the ability to change the tone of a text message to be more formal or casual, to summarise a long email or voice recording into typed bullet points, an interpreter mode that works offline to let you talk to someone in another language, and tools to edit people or things in an out of photos you’ve taken.
“Samsung’s long history of innovation has allowed us to lead in the mobile space, creating the foldable form factor and ushering in the mobile AI era. Now, we are excited to bring these two complementary technologies together and unlock new possibilities for users around the world,” said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. “Our foldables meet the unique needs of every user and now enhanced by the power of Galaxy AI, Samsung is delivering an experience like never before.”
The phones also come with Google’s Gemini AI app pre-installed, which is designed to pool all your Google Account data and have a personal assistant to hand that knows all about you. You might find this very useful or incredibly creepy – it’s a strangely thin line.
Samsung also announced an upgraded Galaxy Watch 7 smartwatch and brand new Galaxy Watch Ultra to compete with the Apple Watch Ultra, as well as two new pairs of Galaxy Buds earbuds and the Galaxy Ring, a wearable smart ring to track health and sleep.
