Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, which is thinner and lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 6 while sporting larger displays and an improved camera system.
The Z Fold Special Edition also comes with 16GB of RAM to support a “‘Galaxy AI’ experience optimized for foldables” and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset. We’ve yet to hear about how much storage the unit ships with.
The Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition will only be available in South Korea when it launches on October 25, and the sole Black Shadow color option will cost 2,789,600 won (or roughly $2,000 / £1,550 / AU$3,000).
Leaks have pointed to a South Korea release for months, but the rumored China launch remains unconfirmed. There are currently no signs of a wider global release.
The official announcement includes comments from Sung-Taek Lim, executive vice president of Samsung Korea, who called the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition a “gesture of gratitude to domestic consumers who are leading the foldable market”.
We hope the upgrades given to the Z Fold Special Edition will make their way to the next globally released Z Fold phone – but the Z Fold 6 was just released back in August, so we might be waiting a while to find out.
With that in mind, here’s a rundown of the major upgrades coming to the Z Fold Special Edition.
Larger, wider displays
The Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition has a 6.5-inch outer display and 8-inch inner display, as compared to the 6.3-inch outer and 7.6-inch inner displays of the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
These enlargements bring Samsung back in line with its competitors, as the Z Fold 6 didn’t quite catch up to rival phones like the OnePlus Open and Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold when it comes to display size. And with an aspect ratio of 21:9, the outer display on the Special Edition is proportionally wider than the skinny 22:9 cover screen of the Z Fold 6.
The Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition marks the first increase in inner display size since the Z Fold 2 released in 2020, and boasts the same almost-square 20:18 aspect ratio as the inner display on the Z Fold 6.
A properly flagship camera
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition may mark a turning point for the Z Fold series by finally offering a comparable photography experience to Samsung’s flagship slab phones.
The Z Fold Special Edition comes equipped with a 200MP main wide camera, the same resolution as the main camera on the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. This is a major step up from the 50MP main camera affixed to the Z Fold 6; at least on paper.
Our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 review found its 50MP camera to be a frustrating oversight. So we’re glad to see steps towards parity with Samsung’s other ultra-premium phone and hope to see the same steps taken with the next global Z Fold release.
Thinner and lighter
Though the race to produce thinner slab phones has been over for years, in the foldable world it’s just heating up.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition boasts a folded thickness of 10.6mm, shaving off an impressive 1.5mm as compared to the Z Fold 6.
At 236g, it’s also 3g lighter than the Z Fold 6 – a modest improvement, but still a welcome boost for one handed use.
This means the Z Fold Special Edition is both thinner and lighter than most other flagship folding phones, slimmer than both the OnePlus Open or Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold but still beaten by the Honor Magic V3.
We’d like to see Samsung keep the same competitive spirit when it comes to the design of the next global Z Fold phone, too.
As mentioned, we aren’t likely to see a global release for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, but we’d otherwise have expected to see this new phone land a spot on our lists of the best Samsung phones and best folding phones.
And as ever, for the latest updates be sure to check in with our Samsung phones coverage.
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jamie.richards@futurenet.com (Jamie Richards)
