Action Cameras
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4: newest rumors and what we all know thus far
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is already one of the best foldable phones you can buy, but Samsung is thinking to be nearly ready to go with its successor, the Z Fold 4. We’ve heard lots of exciting Galaxy Z Fold 4 gossip, much of which points to the kind of upgrades that could help take foldables more mainstream – and make their price drop. Read on for everything there is to know about Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, including its expected specs and price, rumors and much more.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 specs: all the latest rumours
In the single biggest Galaxy Z Fold 4 specs leak so far, mobile tipster Yogesh Brar shared details of Samsung’s next foldable on his Twitter account recently. It’s important to note that these are a far from confirmed, although Brar has a reasonable track record when it comes to Android leaking.
What’s down on paper here lines up more or less with what we’d expect from the device. The key upgrade for many will be the improved camera, with the Galaxy Z Fold 4 claimed by Brar to being getting the same 50MP primary (rear) camera as the excellent Galaxy S22 Plus.
There’s also room for the new-gen Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, which should make the Z Fold 4 comfortably nippier than its predecessor when running Samsung’s tweaked version of Android 12.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4
– Inner: 7.6″ QXGA+ AMOLED, 120Hz
– Outer: 6.2″ HD+ AMOLED, 120Hz
– Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC
– 12/16GB RAM
– 256/512GB storage
– Rear Cam: 50MP + 12MP (UW) + 12MP (3x)
– Inner Cam: 16MP (UD)
– Outer Cam: 10MP
– Android 12, OneUI
– 4,400mAh battery, 25W
— Yogesh Brar (@heyitsyogesh) May 30, 2022
In terms of the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s design, things look like they could be staying mostly the same. The inner and outer displays promised in this specs dump looking very similar in size and spec to what we saw on last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 3, including the all-important 120Hz refresh rate still there on both screens. There doesn’t seem to be room for a bigger battery, however – a shame given the way foldables gobble up power.
Don’t be disheartened. While Galaxy Z Fold 4 specs are only an incremental upgrade in paper, Samsung is understood to be working on something even more important for the device: a new hinge.
According to reports, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 hinge will be slimmer, lighter and generally less cumbersome than the previous model’s join. Chunky hinges have been a real pain point for the growing foldable market, so hopefully the South Korean outfit has something clever up its sleeve that can help take the form factor mainstream.
Galaxy Z Fold 4 will be Samsung’s first foldable phone with a single hinge
It allows the device to be thinner & lighter while also saving costs and being more durable.
In this picture we see the two hinges on the Z Fold 3, the Z Fold 4 will have just one in the center. pic.twitter.com/YZkiCVN6Re
— Anthony (@TheGalox_) April 5, 2022
Indeed, according to an earlier report by Seoul-based industry news outlet The Elec, the firm is working with no less than three different OEMs on the hinge production front, with a fourth potentially also entering the picture. That’s a lot of partners, suggesting Samsung feels that the hinge is the feature that could make or break the Galaxy Z Fold 4. Literally.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 release date and price
It’s far from official, but we reckon the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s likely release date is August or September 2022. That’s because Samsung has a history of revealing its new Galaxy foldables in the late summer/early autumn window, with the devices then hitting shelves a a few weeks later.
By way of illustrating this point, here’s when the Galaxy Z Fold 4 predecessors have been released:
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold release date: Sept 2019
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 release date: Sep 2020
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 release date: Aug 2021
The reveal will almost certainly take place at a dedicated Samsung Unpacked event, though let’s not forget that early September also sees annual tech mega show IFA descend on Berlin. It may not be the absolute blockbuster it once was (unless you’re overly enamored with the latest washer/dryer tech), but it’s still a huge international industry event that provides a great vehicle to show off a shiny new device like the Z Fold 4.
In terms of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 price, we’ve also only got our educated guesswork to go on. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 starts at £1599 / $1799, which is a fair chunk of change when you consider even the mighty Galaxy S22 Ultra can be had from £1149.
Samsung might be looking to change that this year, and there’s been some chatter on South Korean social media (via PhoneArena) that the Z Fold 4 will be its cheapest foldable yet.
The Z Fold 3 was cheaper than the Fold 2, and there’s plenty of strategic value to be found in achieving a greater price parity with its other high-end phones, as many of us would count ourselves among those put off by eye-watering Galaxy foldable pricing in the past.
Body and header image credit: @OnLeaks via Smartprix.com
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 features: what we want to see
We’re getting close enough to the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s release now that we have a decent idea of what’s reasonable to expect from the device, though there’s still plenty of things we’d like to see. Here’s our wish list for Samsung’s next foldable.
Lower price
Starting with something that’s entirely plausible, we really want to believe the rumors suggesting Samsung could shave a bit of its foldable’s price when the Galaxy Z Fold 4 arrives later this year. The current £1600 starting point for the Z Fold 3 is more than you pay for all but the most premium, business or gaming focused laptops, so we hope that the device falls more closely in line with the rest of the high-end phone world , rather than aping something like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (a premium Windows laptop) on cost.
More S Pen swagger
The Z Fold 3 was the first Samsung foldable to offer S Pen compatability and we’d like to see things go even further with the next iteration. Specifically, we’d like to see built-in S Pen storage the same as the S22 Ultra – an S Pen slot or caddy, depending on how you want to think of it. We’d also pop a cork of something modest if Samsung extended S Pen compatability to both of the Z Fold 4’s screens – the Fold 3 only letting you use the stylus on the interior screen when folded out like a mini tablet, not on the outside when closed like a phone.
Better battery life
It doesn’t look like we’ll necessarily get our wish, but the fact remains: two screens sap more power than just one. The last Galaxy foldable gave you a maximum single charge life of around eight hours, which isn’t horrific, but isn’t great either. Of course, a bigger cell would almost inevitably add some (more) chunk to the Galaxy Z Fold 4, so perhaps the hope rests more with Android and Samsung’s customizations of it, to help this year’s foldable better manage the juice it does have in the fridge.