After three generations, it very much looks like Samsung’s Galaxy Flip Z 3 is the breakthrough foldable phone that is on the verge of going mainstream.
It has been a long journey for Samsung to get to this point. When the company demoed its very first foldable concept back in 2013, originally known as “Youm”, it chose to show off the possibilities of the technology with a regrettably cheesy advert. It was a ham-fisted attempt at comedy that felt like Samsung had forever relegated foldables to a niche concept for tech hipsters.
But almost a decade on Samsung tells me that consumer demand for both the Flip 3 and Fold 3 is "exceeding expectations". The Korean company also expanded on the volume of sales, saying that "in the first month since launch in the US, we’ve sold more foldable devices than we have in the past two years. More specifically, Galaxy Z Fold3 has sold 5x more units than Galaxy Z Fold2, with Galaxy Z Flip3 selling 40x more units than Galaxy Z Flip 5G during the same time period." Samsung didn't give me specific sales figures - I imagine they're dwarfed by sales of Samsung's non-foldable handsets - but interest in flexible phones is clearly growing.
The difference in sales between the two devices gives us an idea of where foldables are headed. The Fold 3, whilst an excellent multitasking handset, simply isn’t as practical as the Flip 3. The clamshell design of the Flip improves on traditional handsets by cutting down the size of the device in half. For our small-pocket friends, or anyone with limited space for big phones, this is invaluable. The familiar, nostalgic shape also makes the transition from traditional handset to futuristic foldable easier.
Solving a common technical problem is one thing, but convincing people to buy the device is another. As I said we don’t have actual sales figures, but anecdotally I have seen far more Flips in the wild than Folds. The Flip isn't just another dour device that does mobile stuff, there's an element of fun that comes with it. The Selfridges tech floor in London stocks the most decadent gadgets, from a £60,000 e-bike to custom arcade machines for your gaming den, and amongst all of that is Samsung's two foldable phones with a queue of people waiting to flip them open. They are both fun gadgets and serious smartphones.
Every manufacturer considering getting into the bendy phone business must be watching the Flip's ascension with great interest. Samsung has seemingly found a winning formula for (soon to be) mass foldable adoption, moving the concept out of the niche techie community and into the mainstream.
For the Fold 3, I suspect more refinement and improvements are necessary to do the same. In my Fold 3 review I noted just how much fun the phone is to use, particularly when it comes to multi-tasking and creative activities. But in everyday life it can be cumbersome. It doesn’t fit in my gym shorts pocket, for example. The battery life also suffers if you make use of that big, 7.6-inch display too much. Finding a new mechanism for unfurling a small tablet display and somehow powering it will be Samsung’s next conundrum to solve.
But the Flip 3? That is ready. It is the future today. Samsung has three generations of refinement and developing the material science of ultra thin glass over its rivals. The Korean company published a video this week showing how it tests foldables, including how resistant the display is to stylus use and the classic fold test, which bends the phone 200,000 times. It seems clear to me that the form-factor of the Flip requires little more than refinement. The major developments of the range will be in software and battery efficiency. Samsung has already done most of the legwork, so if Google, Apple or other companies start making foldable phones, expect them to be clamshell-shaped too.
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