Samsung is the main force in foldable phones right now, but even with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip it hasn’t managed to make them particularly affordable yet. That could soon change though, as the company is rumored to be working on a Samsung Galaxy Fold Lite or Galaxy Fold e that would further push the price down.
According to Max Weinbach (a leaker with a good track record) the company is rumored to be working on a Samsung Galaxy Fold e that would cost $1,100 (roughly £890 / AU$1,690).
For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is $1,380 / £1,300 (around AU$2,050) and the original Samsung Galaxy Fold launched for $1,980 / £1,900 / AU$2,900. So while still not being a truly affordable phone, the Fold e would certainly be cheap compared to most other foldables.
- There are lots of foldable phones to choose between
- Read our full foldable Motorola Razr review
- The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 is also in the works
There's a rumor, and keep in mind this is a rumor, Samsung will be releasing a Galaxy Fold e for $1100. They are also working releasing 3 folds. Two with plastic, one with UTG. Could explain the Winner2 vs Champ codenames.May 11, 2020
And it might be cheaper still, as Mauri QHD (a tech leaker who doesn’t have much of a track record yet) replied to Weinbach saying they’d heard it would launch as the Fold Lite and cost just $900 (roughly £730 / AU$1,380), making it even cheaper than standard flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S20.
They added that it would apparently have either a tiny secondary screen or none at all, and while we’d certainly take claims from this source with a pinch of salt, Weinbach agrees on the screen front, saying in another tweet that it looks like the original Fold, but with no front screen and fewer cameras.
Weinbach also added that Samsung apparently has three new Folds in the works, two of which have plastic screens and one UTG (Ultra-Thin Glass, which is more expensive). Beyond the Fold e (which presumably uses plastic), we’d assume the UTG one is the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2.
It’s not clear what the third model would be – perhaps it could be the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 2 – but we’d expect that to use UTG as well, and Weinbach specifically said ‘Fold’ rather than ‘foldable’, suggesting that all three phones are part of the Galaxy Fold range.
Still, whatever it is, it sounds like Samsung has a lot of foldables in the works, and could be pushing the lower-end price down to around or below the level of typical flagships. We may only be a couple of years away from a foldable finding its way onto our list of the best cheap phones.
