Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 2 is a full-screen foldable
Samsung has revealed the first official look at the Galaxy Z Fold 2, and it promises bigger screens, new colours, and a much slicker design than last year’s problem-plagued Galaxy Fold.
The biggest change by far is on the front. TheZ Fold 2– borrowing the ‘Z’ from the smaller Galaxy Z Flip – boasts a 6.2in display that covers the whole of the phone’s front when closed, in contrast to the smaller 4.6in screen found on the front of thefirst generation Fold, which never offered enough space to actually use the Fold while it was closed.
The 7.6in folding internal screen has had a major upgrade too, ditching the unsightly corner notch in favour of a dinky little pinhole selfie camera on the right side of the display – matching a similar pinhole camera on the front of the phone.
The changes make the Z Fold 2’s hardware a better match forHuawei’s pricier Mate Xs, though of course Samsung has the advantage of being able to give its phone a full global release with Google support. That makes the second-gen Fold the big-screen foldable to beat right now – though admittedly there isn’t much other competition.
Meanwhile new colours, the snazzy Mystic Bronze and only-slightly-less-snazzy Mystic Black, match the newNote 20 phones– also announced today, alongside the newGalaxy Watch 3,Tab S7, andBuds Livetrue wireless headphones.
Of course, the big question for prospective buyers is durability. The first Fold was rushed to market and hastily withdrawn after review units proved unacceptably fragile. By the time it returned it was in a much better state though, and February’sGalaxy Z Flip– itself about to get anew 5G version– had none of the same concerns, beyond worries that the ‘ultra-thin glass’ used in the folding display is predictably vulnerable to scratches.
While Samsung’s other new announcements are available to pre-order today, the company is yet to announce a firm release date or price for the Z Fold 2 – though has confirmed that it will reveal more on 1 September, and launch pre-orders that same day.
That should give you a bit more time to save up for it, and in the meantime UK fans canpre-register interest with Samsung, while those in the US canreserve the phone.
Related stories for further reading
Author: Dominic Preston, Contributor
Previously Tech Advisor’s Deputy Editor, Dom covers everything that runs on electricity, from phones and laptops to wearables, audio, gaming, smart home, and streaming.
