It’s official! Samsung is working on cheaper foldables after Galaxy Z Fold 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 hands-on review
(Image credit: Future)

Samsung’s foldables are expensive — that much is obvious when looking at the Galaxy Z Fold 5. But the company has heard your concerns, as it plans to add a more affordable option to its portfolio.

As Bloomberg (via Yahoo Finance) reports, ™ Roh, chief of Samsung’s mobile business, has talked about making “a leap in our price positioning,” which would surely sell a lot better than the current pricey options. 

Folding down the cost

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 hands-on review

(Image credit: Future)

This all comes with the backdrop of the smartphone market taking a broader downturn over the past year. But there are some disagreements amongst forecasters, as IDC expects 50 million foldables shipped in 2027, and Counterpoint Research predicts double that at 100 million.

Why? Well, it could be one of the bigger reasons why Samsung is looking to drive the cost down sooner rather than later. Counterpoint is making an assumption that we will all be buying foldable iPhones in 2025.

With that looming specter, it’s logical that Samsung wants to move fast here, and look to hit that $799 price tag that most users are comfortable paying for a flagship smartphone.

Outlook

Offering a cheaper foldable to actually compete at the more acceptable mainstream flagship prices is a smart move on Samsung’s part. While the company has worked hard to really push foldables as luxury devices, that’s only going to attract so many people.

And as this form factor gradually grows into becoming the mainstream, and the threat of an Apple foldable taking over the whole industry is on the horizon, now is the time for Samsung to act and give us maybe a Galaxy A Fold (or whatever the team wishes to name it).

Jason England
Content Editor

Jason brought a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a writer at Laptop Mag, and he is now the Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He takes a particular interest in writing articles and creating videos about laptops, headphones and games. He has previously written for Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.