Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 comes with new aspect, lighter body

10 July 2024

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold6 at the Unpacked event in Paris, showcasing a thinner, lighter phone with new aspect ratios for its screens. The new flagship foldable packs a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and features One UI 6.1.1, complete with the latest Galaxy AI goodies from the company's labs.

The most important change brought by the Galaxy Z Fold6 is arguably the new, slightly different aspect ratio of its cover screen. It's still not what you'd call conventional, but the 22.1:9 ratio is notably better than the 23.1:9 of the outgoing model.

The cover display's diagonal increased slightly too to 6.3", combined with the new aspect, makes for a decent size growth at the expense of bezels.

The Galaxy Fold6 is 1.5 mm shorter and 2.9 mm wider when unfolded (1 mm in folded mode) compared to the Galaxy Fold5. It is also 0.5 mm thinner when unfolded (1.3 mm when folded), but more importantly, it is 14g lighter than its predecessor. In fact, at 239g, it's approaching the lightest foldables out there and is also only 7g heavier than the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

The hinge has been redesigned as well, and Samsung even fit a 1.6x larger vapor chamber, compared to the Fold5, to further improve heat dissipation. The Fold6 is also IP48 certified - dust protection being a first among foldables. Sure, it's only guaranteeing protection from solid particles over 1 mm in size, but that's still better than anything else we had up to this point.

On the inside, you get a 7.6" foldable (or Infinity Flex, as Samsung calls it) display with a 20.9:18 aspect. Both the main and cover screens are Dynamic AMOLED 2X with 120 Hz adaptive refresh rate. The cover display and the back of the phone (when folded) have Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection.

The five cameras onboard the Galaxy Z Fold6 don't bring much in terms of hardware upgrades. You still get a 50 MP f/1.8 main camera with OIS at the back, alongside a 10 MP f/2.4 telephoto unit with 3x optical zoom and a 12 MP f/2.2 ultrawide shooter with a 123-degree field of view.

A 10 MP selfie camera is nested inside a punch-hole on the cover display, while a 4 MP video-chat shooter sits hidden under the foldable display.

Disappointingly, for the third consecutive generation, the Samsung flagship foldable comes with a 4,400 mAh battery, supporting 25W wired, 15W wireless, and 4.5W reverse wireless charging. However, the company promises that the improved efficiency of the Galaxy Fold6 will help it last longer between charges.

Samsung talked at length about Galaxy AI's advancements, promoting the Z Fold6’s large screen productivity. It carries over the Note Assist and Circle to Search, but the new Android 14-based One UI 6.1.1 capabilities leverage the foldable form factor. Interpreter mode allows both parties to view translations on the main and cover displays, while Sketch to Image lets AI generate sophisticated art from sketches made in the Gallery or Note screen.

Speaking of software, Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Fold6 will offer 7 generations of Android updates.

The Galaxy Z Fold6 comes with three storage options — 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB — all paired with 12 GB of RAM. Main color choices include Silver Shadow, Pink, and Navy, with exclusive options Crafted Black and White available only through Samsung.com.

Pricing starts at $1,899.99 / £1,799 / €1,999. For the US, you can get up to $150 off the Z Fold6, here's how. Pre-orders open now, and general availability will begin on July 24.