The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3 represent Samsung’s first big success in the foldable smartphone market. The 2021 handsets delivered a few notable improvements over their predecessors, including a more durable design and much better prices. But Samsung had little, if any, competition to worry about. The biggest threat to the Fold 3 was its predecessor. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 coming out this summer won’t have it as easy.
We’ve seen a couple of Fold 3-like foldables from China in the past few months. The Oppo Find N and Honor Magic V will be joined by a foldable model from Vivo soon. Even Google is expected to unveil a foldable Pixel handset this fall which should be more affordable than the Fold 3. With that in mind, the rumored Galaxy Z Fold 4 upgrades seem necessary at this point.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is more durable than its predecessors. That includes the foldable screen, which features an improved Ultra Thin Glass (UTG). The UTG layer also supports stylus interaction, a first for Samsung foldables.
The phone was also more affordable than its predecessors, with Samsung practically doing everything possible to get customers to try it out. But the handset is far from perfect.
The 2021 Fold flagship is still bulkier than regular handsets. Moreover, the Fold 3 camera experience isn’t precisely flagship-level.
Going forward, we expect Samsung to “fix” these issues. After all, each new handset generation features camera improvements and design tweaks.
The first Galaxy Z Fold 4 rumors
The main 2022 Samsung foldable isn’t likely to mark a massive departure from last year’s design, no matter how annoying that tall external display might be. However, a leaker said on Twitter that the Galaxy Z Fold 4 will be the first Samsung phone to feature a single-hinge design.
The new hinge will replace the dual-hinge design seen in the teardown image above. As a result, the phone could be thinner and lighter. It’s unclear whether a single hinge design would increase the phone’s durability, as the leaker claims.
A different Fold 4 rumor said a few weeks ago the Fold 4 will come with a built-in stylus. That report also claimed the 2022 model will resemble last year’s Fold. But we’re yet to see any confirmation on the stylus claim from other leakers.
Separately, a report from Galaxy Club says details the Fold 4’s new camera specs. If the information is accurate, the new foldable will feature the same 10-megapixel telephoto camera from the Galaxy S22 series. The move would represent a downgrade in megapixels, but the new camera will deliver 3x optical zoom compared to 2x for the Fold 3.
The report also notes that the Galaxy Z Fold 4 will feature a 10-megapixel selfie camera, in line with the Fold 3 and Galaxy S22 base models.
Galaxy Club says that the most exciting camera upgrades concern the primary and ultra-wide cameras. The blog speculates that the Galaxy Z Fold 4 might match the Galaxy S22’s camera specs. The phones feature 50-megapixel wide and 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensors. However, these camera details can’t be confirmed.
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