Samsung’s foldable phones are among its most expensive handsets, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 costing even more than the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, but with this year’s models we could see the prices drop.
This is according to a report in The Elec (via Phandroid), which claims that Samsung Display is considering using inkjet printing to make the bezels on this year’s foldable phones – presumably meaning the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6.
Currently the company uses a ‘micro dry process decoration’ (or MDD) to make the bezels on its foldable OLED panels, and while it doesn’t sound like this change in process would affect the quality of the display or the size of the bezels, it would apparently reduce production costs, and those savings could potentially be passed on to buyers.
A cheaper process
Of course, Samsung could just pocket the savings, but we think it would be keen to reduce the prices of its foldable phones to give them a better chance of becoming truly mainstream.
Exactly how much cheaper inkjet printing would be is unclear, but for reference the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 starts at $1,799.99 / £1,749 / AU$2,599, and even the relatively affordable Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 starts at $999.99 / £1,049 / AU$1,649, so any reduction in price would be desirable.
The upcoming models are still sure to be expensive phones of course, but we’ve previously heard that Samsung might be working on a Galaxy Z Fold FE for launch this year too. This would be a mid-range model with a potentially much lower price tag, and if Samsung does switch to inkjet printing, then this phone would likely benefit from that cost saving too.
We’re not expecting to see any new foldable phones from Samsung until at least late July though, so it's going to be a while before we see any potentially cheaper options.
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