On June 26 Patently Apple posted a report titled "Samsung to unveil next-gen Foldable Smartphones with AI at their Galaxy Unpacked Event in Paris in July." Currently Samsung is under the gun in China. Huawei, surprisingly surpassed Samsung in Q1-24 in foldables with 35% market share compared to Samsung's 23%, falling from 58% a year ago. All major Chinese smartphone OEMs now offer foldables as premium phones that chisel away at Apple's market share. While foldable smartphones are not a threat to Apple or Samsung worldwide, they are a factor in Mainland China.

Although we're only days away from Samsung's foldable smartphone event in Paris this week, Samsung is still under pressure to regain its leadership in China's foldables market. In fact, Samsung is already getting word out that a new slimmer foldable Z Fold model will be coming to market sometime in Q4.

According to a report by The Elec this week, "The Z Fold 6 Slim model, which is thinner than the standard Z Fold 6, which will be released next week, is expected to be released as early as the fourth quarter. It is expected that 400,000 to 500,000 units will be shipped by the end of this year, mainly in some markets such as China.

According to multiple Samsung Electronics component suppliers on the 4th, mass production of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim model is imminent. Major component approvals have been completed, and a component volume forecast that predicts 400,000 to 500,000 units can be shipped as finished products by the end of the year has been delivered to suppliers.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim model specifications include an 8.0-inch internal screen and a 6.5-inch external screen. They are both larger than the 7.6-inch internal screen and 6.2-6.3-inch external screen of the standard Z Fold 6 model scheduled to be released next week.

Samsung Electronics removed some components from the regular model, such as the digitizer (supports S Pen recognition), to make the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim model thinner than the regular model. Certain components in the Z Fold 6 Slim model have higher specifications than those in the regular Z Fold 6 model.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim model will be released in limited countries due to limited quantities (400,000 to 500,000 units by the end of the year), with China being the focus.  

Samsung Electronics began a full review of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 slim model concept in May. Although some components were removed to make the product thinner, the product thickness was not thinner than that of Chinese foldable phones as a result of securing durability through folding tests (approximately 200,000 times) and adding water and dust resistance functions.

Huawei latest winning foldable design uses a "Fold-out" design rather than Samsung's "Fold-in" as presented below.

The Fold-Out design was certainly one way that allowed Huawei to reduce the thickness of their latest foldable. To beat Huawei, Samsung may have to release their first "Fold-Out" foldable smartphone sometime in the future. Yet for now, such a model has not been heard of in the supply chain.   

Whether Samsung will expand their new slimmer model beyond China in 2025 is unknown at this time.

The Latest Foldable News Relating to Apple

01: A Supply Chain report claims that Apple has begun the 'Request for Information' phase regarding Multiple Foldable Device Projects

02: A new Rumor suggests that Apple may consider a Foldable Smartphone with a 'Fold-Out' Display Design

03: Apple's foldable device patents could be explored here.