Samsung has dropped the price of its flagship phone, the Galaxy Z Flip 5G, by $ 250. It’s now $ 1,199.99, which on the face of it looks like a pretty big drop from the original price of $ 1,449.99 in July 2020.
However, there are two things to consider about the price change. First, this phone is about six months old and is the same design as the non-5G version released last February. Samsung phones are known for seeing early and aggressive transactions; now the trend is also hitting its folding phones. So, while a price drop is nice to see, it is not exactly rare.
Second, $ 1,200 is still very expensive for a phone that has essentially the same specs and features as a Galaxy S20 FE 5G, which is on sale for $ 700 (or less if you can get a deal).
The news of the price drop comes after Samsung’s president of mobile phone, TM Roh, promised to make folding phones “more accessible to all” in 2021. It also comes after Samsung’s latest earnings announcement in which it says it will expand its portfolio of foldable products. – which specifically states that it plans to “expand the foldable category, including the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip.”
We have been expecting a new version of the Z Fold (which is open up to the size of a small tablet) with stylus support this year, but it is unclear when Samsung will release it. As for the Z Flip, it is unclear what the price drop means for the timing of the next.
But the biggest question around folding phones is not about when new ones are coming; it’s about how much they’re going to cost. While it is certainly true that $ 1,200 is $ 250 less than $ 1,450, there is still a very large price premium for customers who want their phones to fold into smaller packages.
The Z Flip is easily the best flip-style folding phone on the market, but it’s a small market. The only other viable competitor is the Motorola Razr 5G, which as of this writing has also been reduced to $ 1,200 from the original price of $ 1,400.
In other words, folding phones are still luxury products. These browse phones cost nearly 50 percent more than comparable non-folding devices. It’s good to see the Z Flip 5G become ‘more accessible’, but unless the price difference can be narrowed, folding phones will be curious instead of devices for the mass market.