Be careful what you like: we’ve finally got some fresh insight into the Galaxy Z Fold 3 – and things are not looking so exciting. Mainly due to the fact that Samsung seems to be scaling the outward screen quite a bit compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 2.
While last year’s flagship featured a 6.2-inch screen, the successor to the Super AMOLED panel has now said. Its slim aspect ratio (25: 9) and resolution (2,260 x 816) are both unchanged compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 2, according to the same source.
Is that the price of the S Pen?
Now a 120Hz upgrade of the front screen will help a lot to compensate for the reduction in real estate. And while it has more or less been claimed since several other sources since late 2020, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 cover in the industry remains less than consistent, to put it mildly. To begin with, it remains to be seen whether the S Pen will be blamed for this largely flat generation upgrade.
Given how this is the first amount of information about the Galaxy Z Fold 3 to appear in almost a month, its implications are a pretty overwhelming report. Being able to pocket tablet-like screen surfaces was one of the most important attractions of foldable smartphones, even before Samsung could commercialize it. But today’s leak indicates that the company is already pulling the brakes on expanding the screen.
This is not to say that a foldable smartphone should be very important to compete with; the Galaxy Z Flip has barely struggled to impress on both of its 2020 versions. But it seems that cost savings are currently Samsung’s first priority. We can only hope that this strategy also leads to significant price declines across the foldable niche.