The Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, the ultra-slim Galaxy Z Fold 6 variant Samsung foldable that was rumored to launch in late 2024, is finally official. It turns out all the rumors were accurate except for one, the foldable’s name.
It’s not “Galaxy Z Fold 6 SE” as we expected, even though we’re looking at a version of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 that Samsung launched in mid-July in Paris, France. Instead, it’s called the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition. But we’ll all call it Galaxy Z Fold SE most of the time.
The ultra-thin foldable is exactly as expensive as recent leaks said it would be. It starts at around $2,000 (2,789,600 won), which is slightly more expensive than the Fold 6’s $1,899 US price. But that’s the Korean price tag, the only market where the Galaxy Z Fold SE will be available initially. That’s where you’ll have to import it from if you think this is the Galaxy foldable you need in your life.
Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition in Korea on Monday morning. It’s going to be available in stores on October 25th. Samsung has listed it on its local web store, noting that the Galaxy Z Fold SE is a “thank you to our customers for loving the Galaxy foldable.”
The real reason Samsung is making the Galaxy Z Fold SE is to appease critics. Samsung made foldables happen largely on its own when it launched the original Galaxy Fold several years ago.
However, several Chinese vendors have caught up and surpassed Samsung in terms of design innovations. Honor is one of the Samsung rivals that deserves special recognition for its incredibly thin Magic V2 and Magic V3 phones.
Samsung hasn’t managed to match either Honor Fold-type foldable when it comes to thickness, but it’s getting there.
For $2,000, you get a phone that measures 10.6mm when folded and 4.9mm when unfolded. The phone is 1.5mm thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold 6. At 236g, it’s also 3g thinner than its sibling.
The Galaxy Z Fold SE should be quite durable despite being thinner than any foldable Samsung has made to date. It features the same Armor aluminum frame as its predecessors. Also, the front and back glass are made of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2. Finally, the phone has an IP48 water resistance rating.
One compromise Samsung had to make to reduce the foldable’s thickness concerns the S Pen. The Galaxy Z Fold SE won’t work with a stylus.
But this isn’t just a Galaxy Z Fold 6 lookalike that Samsung managed to shrink down to these sizes. Samsung also went for larger screens for the Galaxy Z Fold SE. We’re looking at 8-inch and 6.5-inch displays instead of the 7.6-inch and 6.3-inch screens on the Fold 6.
Other upgrades concern the specs. The Galaxy Z Fold SE features 16GB of RAM instead of 12GB and 512GB of storage instead of 256GB. The rear camera, which features a significant bump, has three sensors. The main camera features a 200-megapixel sensor instead of 50-megapixel, another upgrade over the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
The processor choice, which will matter to many buyers, is also unsurprising. Samsung went for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor that powers the Fold 6 and Flip 6. Also unsurprising is the Galaxy AI suite of features available on the foldable, including Google’s Circle to Search.
Samsung has not announced preorder deals for the Galaxy Z Fold SE, so don’t expect any release date discounts. But if you buy it by December 31st, you should receive coupons for the Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra.
The phone will probably be available in China in the future, though we don’t have a launch date for it at this time.
