Samsung has had a tough year when it comes to marketing and selling foldable phones. That’s not because the technology isn’t interesting to consumers, but because the first phone Samsung ever made turned out to be a lot easier to damage than we’d have liked. The Galaxy Fold required several fixes that would prevent screen damage, and Samsung had to delay the phone’s launch by five months. Even so, the handset is extremely fragile, and you do have to pay extra attention when dealing with the screen. These durability issues are all the more annoying considering the Galaxy Fold’s entry price. At $2,000, the Galaxy Fold 2 costs twice as much as the iPhone 11 Pro, one of the best phones you can buy this year. This brings us to a brand new report that says one of Samsung’s two foldable devices next year will sell for less than $1,000, which should help Samsung move more product.
Samsung is working on a vertical foldable handset, similar to Motorola’s new Razr handset. That’s something that Samsung has already teased. And it’s the vertical foldable that might cost around $845 in Korea next year, The Korea Herald reports.
How will Samsung reduce the entry cost for its foldable handsets by more than 50%? That’s something the report doesn’t say. Motorola’s $1,500 Razr is the cheapest foldable right now, not counting the Pablo Escobar phone, of course, because it packs mid-range specs compared to the Galaxy Fold or Huawei Mate X. With that in mind, it seems unlikely for the vertical Galaxy Fold to pack Galaxy S11-grade hardware. Hopefully, the phone’s build quality will be much better than the Galaxy Fold’s.
Samsung will also launch a second edition Fold phone, but that model is coming around August. The vertical foldable should drop in February, right alongside the Galaxy S11 series.
Samsung, meanwhile, plans to expand the Galaxy Fold rollout to some 60 countries by February. The company has sold some 500,000 units so far, The Herald notes. Samsung plans to increase foldable phone shipments to six million next year, with the help of the cheaper model.
