Anticipation for Samsung’s Unpacked event is rising, as the company is set to unveil its newest mobile devices on August 5th. A recent tweet from leaker Ice Universe claims that this should include their long awaited second-generation foldable tablet smartphone, which will likely be called the Galaxy Z Fold 2. It looks like Samsung’s foldable devices will fall under the Galaxy Z umbrella similar to the Galaxy S and Note product lines. Though quite a mouthful, the move to consolidate their foldable smartphones into a new product line makes sense, and verifies Samsung’s belief that foldable phones are the future. And we whole heartedly agree.
Recently, rumours were swirling that the Galaxy Z Fold 2 would not be showcased at Samsung’s Unpacked event due to software issues. However, the source of these rumours Max Weinbach, has since changed his prediction and now believes that the Galaxy Z Fold 2 will be seen on August 5th. Samsung has ironed out a lot of the issues that were in the original Galaxy Fold and the company is planning to release a plethora of foldable devices in the near future.
The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is expected to have a Snapdragon 865 or 865+ processor, 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. A 512GB storage version is expected to be available for purchase down the road. The device will consist of two batteries which together will have a combined 4365 mAh capacity, slightly lower than the 4380 mAh battery on the original Galaxy Fold. This is a bit surprising since the Galaxy Z Fold 2 has larger displays and a 120 Hz refresh rate. Hopefully, Samsung has increased efficiency in other areas and battery life on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 will be just as great as last year’s model. According to several sources, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 will also support 25W fast charging, 15W wireless charging as well as 15W reverse powershare.
The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is set to raise the bar even further, with a 6.23-inch OLED cover display and a massive 7.7-inch tablet display with 120 Hz refresh rate. The screen will be made of ultra-thin glass (UTG) similar to the Galaxy Z Flip display. The Galaxy Z Flip screen was surprisingly hard and felt like a regular smartphone display. There won’t be an S-Pen for the device since ultra-thin glass is fragile. However, the ultra-thin glass screen is still an upgrade from the Galaxy Fold display which has a soft, squishy, plastic feeling. The hinge has also been upgraded and you will now be able to fold the Galaxy Z Fold 2 completely. The device will also be much lighter than the original Galaxy Fold, which felt like you were carrying two phones.
The bezels will be thinner than those on the original Galaxy Fold and there won’t be a notch on the display. Samsung is sticking with the holepunch cut-out for the selfie camera as seen on many of its devices from 2019. There were talks about an under-display camera earlier on in the year, but I guess we’ll have to wait another year for that technology to become more prevalent in smartphones. A 10MP selfie camera will be located in the center of the right half of the tablet display to prevent overlapping with the rear cameras. There will also be a 10MP selfie camera on the cover display.
South Korean tech news site ETNews recently revealed that Samsung will skip the 108-megapixel primary sensor for the Z Fold 2, sticking to a conventional 12MP wide angle, 12MP ultrawide angle camera and a 64MP telephoto camera. This is similar to the setup we saw on the Galaxy S20.
Twitter leaker Riccolo cited a 2,000 euro price tag for the handset, which is about $2665 USD. Due to production hurdles, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is not expected to be available for purchase until September at the earliest. Samsung will launch the Galaxy Z Fold 2 alongside the Galaxy Note 20 on August 5th, in an online-only Unpacked event. It can be viewed from Samsung.com at 10 am EDT (7 am PDT).