The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip was presented to Samsung Unpacked in February alongside the Galaxy S20, occupying the foldable slot that the original Galaxy Fold had occupied the previous year, and there was no sign of the phone’s supposed successor, the Galaxy Fold 2.
We’re still waiting for a Samsung Galaxy Fold 2, with a form factor similar to the original but with a collection of improvements and new features to make it a high-end, high-end foldable phone.
We are still far from its planned launch (we are now thinking of August alongside the Galaxy Note 20), and there have not been many leaks and rumors so far, but we can instead turn to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip to show us some of the changes Samsung could make to the Galaxy Fold 2 .
Super-size me
One of the most important reasons for existing foldable phones is to make the devices more compact and portable because they shrink when folded. This includes both tablet size phones which can shrink to a reasonable size in your pocket and normal size phones which can become tiny when folded.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip meets the latter need, so Samsung has already covered this base, and now it just needs a phone for the former. The original Galaxy Fold was to some extent, but when closed, the phone was smaller – or at least narrower – than your average handset.
Samsung could therefore increase the sizes somewhat to have a very large tablet that closes into a fairly large (but not heavy) phone.
That would keep the promise of the original Galaxy Fold, a smartphone that opens on a tablet, but increasing the sizes to really deliver that experience on the big screen.
Functional when folded
One of the most popular features of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip was the Flex mode, which allows you to half fold the device at a right angle, place it on a surface and interact with certain applications and functions of different manners.
For example, the horizontal part of the screen works like a trackpad in the gallery, while on YouTube this part of the screen will display comments, while the video will be played on the other half. It also allows the phone to function as a practical tripod when taking pictures.
This gives the impression that Samsung sees the semi-folded phone as an important part of the experience and a way to bring out features and functions that you would not otherwise be able to use.
Since the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 will fold in a different way from the Galaxy Z Flip (if it retains the original form factor), we could see a new multitude of semi-folded functions: perhaps another photo mode, or a game function, or a different way of viewing content.
Perforated front camera
When the Samsung Galaxy S10 was released with its perforated camera, Samsung said it was not looking to stick with the design functionality for that long, but all of its high-end phones in 2019 and 2020 have it used, including the Galaxy Note 10, Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Z Flip.
So it looks like the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 will likely have a perforated snapper at the front, to reduce the amount of screen space occupied by the lens. We have heard rumors that the device has an under-screen camera, but frankly, that doesn’t seem likely, as this technology has not been installed on any smartphone so far.
There could be more than one front camera, but we expected all of them to be cut out, probably next to each other.
An ultra-thin screen
One of the most touted features of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip was its “ Ultra-Thin Glass ” screen – a thin, foldable glass screen. This contrasts with previous foldables – including the Galaxy Fold – which used plastic screens. The transition to glass is remarkable because it is theoretically much more difficult than a plastic screen.
That said, later durability tests have suggested that ultra-thin glass contains far less glass than you would expect, but it’s still an important aspect of the device.
On the other hand, Samsung remained very silent on the plastic screen of the Galaxy Fold, in part because it kept breaking. The screen of the Z Flip doesn’t seem to break nearly as much (although it’s probably less robust than a typical smartphone), so it seems that ultra-thin glass is a hit in Samsung’s books.
Therefore, we expect future Samsung foldable devices, including the Galaxy Fold 2, to make the most of this display technology. We are also delighted, because the Z Flip is solid to use and you never feel like you can accidentally pierce the screen.