It has been five years since Samsung unveiled its first foldable smartphone at an Unpacked event in February 2019. It was a new product category for Samsung, and the company couldn"t get away with the shortcomings of the device.
Eagle-eyed users were quick to spot the crease on Galaxy Fold"s foldable display, followed by reports of broken screens on review units, ultimately forcing the South Korean giant to rethink its foldable smartphone before putting it up for sale later that year.
Fast forward to now, Samsung has released five generations of its foldable smartphone and continues to improve it every year. While the first model was simply called Galaxy Fold, Samsung rebranded it to Galaxy Z Fold in 2020.
Among various improvements, Samsung has made the device lighter over the years, a few grams at a time. Here is the weight comparison of different Galaxy Z Fold models:
- Galaxy Fold: 276g
- Galaxy Z Fold2: 282g
- Galaxy Z Fold3: 271g
- Galaxy Z Fold4: 263g
- Galaxy Z Fold5: 253g
Comparing the first and the current foldable leaves us with a difference of 23g (about 8.3%) that Samsung managed to achieve. The weight graph did go slightly up with the Galaxy Z Fold2, but the smartphone featuring a new "Hideaway Hinge" delivered significant improvements over its predecessor.
The upgraded hinge trickled down to later models, allowing them to rest at various angles for selfies and video calls. According to Samsung, significant weight reduction happened when it changed the working of the hinge with the release of Galaxy Z Fold4 in 2022.
While the previous foldable in the series used interlocking gears to ensure even screen folding and unfolding, the Galaxy Z Fold4 changed the hinge motion from rotary to linear. This adjustment drastically reduced weight, thickness and the number of parts, which streamlined manufacturing and improved the device’s resilience.
Still, the current Galaxy Fold is heavier than other popular foldables like the OnePlus Open (245g) and vivo X Fold3 Pro (236g) but not the Pixel Fold (283g). Meanwhile, the improved hinge mechanism has also solved another problem Galaxy Fold models dealt with initially.
The early versions of Samsung"s hinge weren"t capable enough to fold the screen evenly, resulting in a wedge-like appearance and uneven thickness. The thickness of the original Galaxy Fold varied from 15.7 to 17.1mm when it was folded.
Samsung continued to reduce the overall thickness and difference until Fold4, which had a folded thickness of 14.2 to 15.8mm. Finally, the company was able to add a new hinge design called "Flex Hinge," enabling Galaxy Z Fold5 to fold its screen evenly without any creases or gaps and have a maximum thickness of 13.4mm.
It remains to be seen if Samsung will be able to reduce the weight and thickness even further when Galaxy Z Fold6 arrives on July 10. During the event, Samsung will also showcase the Galaxy Z Flip6 and is expected to reveal the Galaxy Watch 7.