Samsung has unveiled the follow-up to the Galaxy Fold, and the new Galaxy Z Fold 2 brings a lot more than an extra letter and number to the table.
The company has revamped the foldable phone’s design to deliver larger displays both inside and out, along with new punch-hole selfie cameras, new colours, and tweaks across the rest of the specs to boot.
Of course, the Z is borrowed from the separate Galaxy Z Flip (itself getting a new 5G variant soon) which has a smaller form factor than the tablet-style Fold.
When is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 coming out?
Samsung may have revealed the Z Fold 2, but it isn’t quite ready yet to reveal when it will officially hit stores. That’s despite the fact that it revealed the Fold 2 alongside the Galaxy Note 20 line, which is already available to order.
The company has at least confirmed that it will reveal more information on 1 September, and says that this is also the day that pre-orders will launch.
If you want to make sure you’re the first to find out more, UK readers can pre-register on Samsung’s official site right now, while those in the US can actually reserve a phone right now, direct from the site – though note that this isn’t strictly a pre-order, and you won’t be putting any money down for it just yet.
As spotted by leaked Max Weinbach, a faux pas from Samsung’s own UK site on 27 August let slip the supposed availability dates, plus UK pricing for the Z Fold 2, with the foldable said to ship starting 17 September and seeing an actual release on 18 September.
How much will the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 cost?
As for pricing, while the same misstep from Samsung also revealed that it’ll possess a lower starting price than its predecessor by £100, it’ll also come in at least one SKU with half the amount of storage.
Galaxy Z Fold 2 will cost £1,799.00 in the UK. Samsung’s pre-order page is already live. Confirms September 17th shipping date and September 18th release. https://t.co/HpkErtigWJ
— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach)
August 27, 2020
This momentary lapse in secrecy revealed that the Galaxy Z Fold 2 will start at £1,799 in the UK and come with 256GB of internal storage. As with the Galaxy Z Flip, a Thom Browne special edition will also be unveiled – the leak revealed.
The original Samsung Galaxy Fold 5G is currently available for £1900/$1980 and other manufacturers’ foldables – from the Huawei Mate X/Mate Xs to the Motorola Razr – all also carry a premium, considering what they bring to the table, besides their folding designs.
A report from Korean news site ETNews suggests that the Z Fold 2 won’t include a pair of TWS Galaxy Buds, as its predecessor did.
What design and specs will the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 have?
If a leak on pricing and availability wasn’t embarrassing enough, newly-established Guangdong-based Chinese tech channel Find Ideas Studio didn’t just grab renders or spy shots of the Z Fold 2, they managed to get their hands on what looks like a retail-ready unit – and pulled off a full four-and-a-half-minute hands-on video review.
English subtitles are available on this video
Not only does this give us a clear look at the Z Fold 2’s appearance, but also how its hinge system works and the interplay between the hardware and the updated Flex UI Android-based user experience.
Samsung Z Fold 2 Advertisement Leaked. pic.twitter.com/T2e6e6ENls
— Abhishek Yadav (@yabhishekhd)
August 22, 2020
Twitter user Abhishek Yadav also camera through with what appears to be a leaked trailer for the Z Fold 2.
Based on the above illumination, it’s certainly more squared compared to the original Fold(s) – more closely apeing the design language of the Galaxy Note 20 series, as opposed to the Galaxy S20 line.
It boasts bigger screens, despite the whole phone actually being thinner than last year’s, at just 6mm – when open.
The biggest changes are to the displays. The front screen is now a 6.2in panel that covers the whole front of the phone while it’s closed, interrupted only by a small pinhole selfie camera – a big upgrade from the small screen found on the first Fold.
Inside things are different too. The 7.6in folding AMOLED panel uses the same ultra-thin glass finish as the Z Flip, is slightly bigger than before, and has also lost the ugly corner notch. Instead, it also boasts a small pinhole camera, positioned at the centre of the right-hand side of the display – so it will be off-centre when the Fold 2 is fully opened.
The hinge has also been upgraded to match the Z Flip’s, allowing the Z Fold 2 to sit open at any angle, rather than only at fixed points.
The Z Fold 2 is available in two finishes – Mystic Bronze and Mystic Black – but comes with another unique twist. If you order from Samsung’s own website you’ll also be able to customise the colour of the hinge to contrast with the rest of the body according to Max Weinbach.
Based on months of leaks and the above hands-on video, we at least have a pretty good idea of what we expect the phone’s internals to look like too:
Internal (primary) display: 7.59in, 5:4, 2208×1716, 120Hz, LTPO ‘Dynamic AMOLED 2x’ w/ UTG + HDR10 support
External (secondary) display: 6.23in, 25:9, 2326×840, 60Hz, LTPO AMOLED + HDR10 support
Primary camera setup:
12Mp Sony IMX555 main w/ OIS
13Mp Samsung ISOCELL S5K3L6 telephoto
13Mp Samsung ISOCELL S5K3M5 ultrawide
Both front-facing cameras: 10Mp (each)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ or Samsung Exynos 990 processor (market dependant)
12GB RAM
256GB storage (UFS 3.0)
Single SIM
No microSD expandability
USB 3.1, USB-C
WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
5G
4,500mAh battery
25W fast charging, 11W fast wireless charging, 11W reverse wireless charging
Stereo speakers
No headphone jack
6mm thin when open
Colours: Mystic Bronze (reflective glass), Mystic Black (frosted AG glass)
279g
Highlights include the new Snapdragon 865+ processor and high refresh rate 120Hz display, as you’d expect from a new flagship. 25W fast charging is a little slower than the competition, but wireless charging helps.
The rear camera specs look similar to the previous Fold on paper – albeit with a Note 20-esq bump – lacking the 64Mp and 108Mp telephoto lenses that Samsung has pushed on the S20 and Note 20 phones. Still, with a main lens, ultrawide, and telephoto you should be able to get some great shots out of the new Fold.
We had initially expected S-Pen stylus support on the Z Fold 2, similar to that found on the Galaxy Note phones, but Samsung has decided to omit the S-Pen – reportedly because the UTG display isn’t scratch-resistant enough to survive long-term stylus-use without picking up knicks and scratches.
