Samsung’s foldable strategy is getting more personal

For several years, the foldable smartphone has been a novelty in search of a purpose. Samsung now believes the more useful question is not whether the form factor survives, but what people actually want to do with it.

The company’s latest Galaxy Z lineup, comprising the Galaxy Z Fold8, Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra and Galaxy Z Flip8, attempts to answer that question with three different propositions. The Fold8 is built around content and immersion, the Fold8 Ultra targets users seeking maximum performance and productivity, while the Flip8 focuses on quick interactions and personal expression.

“This year, we set out to build our most complete foldable lineup yet, because we don’t believe a single form factor can meet the needs of every user,” says Fadi Abu Shamat, Vice President and Head of the Mobile eXperience Division at Samsung Gulf Electronics.

That represents a shift in how Samsung thinks about the category. Rather than asking consumers to adapt to the technology, the company is trying to adapt the technology to different ways of living.

“Together, these three propositions give consumers the freedom to choose the foldable that actually fits how they live, rather than asking them to adapt to one device,” Abu Shamat says.

THE FOLD GETS A RETHINK

The Galaxy Z Fold8 reflects that shift particularly clearly.

Samsung says the new Fold was designed around how people increasingly use their phones for content, rather than treating the large display primarily as a productivity tool. Abu Shamat says content-related activities, media consumption, browsing, and gaming now account for most daily usage time across Samsung’s foldable user base.

“The insight came directly from how our users’ behavior has evolved,” he says.

The company also heard from users who wanted the immersive experience of a large foldable display without giving up portability.

“More people were telling us they wanted the immersive, large-screen experience of a foldable without compromising on portability or pocketability,” Abu Shamat says.

That feedback shaped the Fold8’s proportions. Its 10:16 cover screen is intended for everyday interactions such as messaging and scrolling. At the same time, its 4:3 main display is designed to make watching, reading and browsing feel more natural when the device is unfolded.

The result is also Samsung’s lightest Fold yet, at 201 grams.

“Fold8 was built directly in response to that,” Abu Shamat says. “Its new proportions are tailored to the aspect ratios people naturally use to watch, read and browse, so content appears with less cropping and wasted space and feels closer to the way it was meant to be seen.”

The ambition, he adds, is to make the Fold relevant beyond its traditional productivity-first audience.

“Fold8 is designed to move easily from a glance to deeper immersion, in a form that fits a broader range of everyday users, not just the productivity-first audience the Fold has traditionally served.”

EIGHT YEARS CHANGED THE CONVERSATION

Samsung’s understanding of users has also evolved.

When the original Galaxy Fold launched, Abu Shamat says the company’s primary challenge was simply demonstrating that a foldable smartphone could work. Today, that novelty has largely disappeared for existing users.

“When we launched the very first Galaxy Fold, the challenge was simply proving a foldable could work,” he says. “Eight years and seven generations on, the conversation has changed completely.”

Consumers, he says, are no longer asking whether a foldable can withstand everyday use. Instead, they expect it to meet the standards of any other flagship smartphone.

“Our users no longer ask if a foldable can hold up; they expect it to, and they now judge it by the same standards as any flagship: durability, portability, performance and long-term usability.”

That shift has changed Samsung’s understanding of who foldables are actually for.

Abu Shamat points to repurchase behavior across the previous Fold7 and Flip7 generations as evidence that users who adopt the form factor are increasingly staying with it. Samsung has also seen new consumers entering the category.

“Foldables have moved well beyond the early-adopter, tech-enthusiast stage we originally expected them to serve,” he says.

People are now using them as their primary devices for work, entertainment and everyday life, he says, and that shift is part of why Samsung moved from a single flagship Fold to three distinct form factors.

“A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach no longer reflects how our users actually live with their phones,” Abu Shamat says.

CAN FOLDABLES ESCAPE THE PREMIUM PRICE TAG?

The next challenge is less about convincing people that foldables work and more about convincing a broader group of consumers that they are worth paying for.

Foldables remain premium devices, and Samsung says rising component and memory costs across the technology industry have contributed to this year’s pricing.

For Abu Shamat, the answer is not to lower the devices’ ambition, but to ensure the premium comes with tangible value.

“The way we look at it is that a premium device has to earn its place in people’s lives,” he says.

That means improvements must go beyond a list of specifications. The Fold8 Ultra, for example, features a 5,000mAh battery, a new Flex Titanium display structure, and a 50MP ultra-wide camera, alongside deeper integration of Galaxy AI.

“These aren’t improvements that sit on a spec sheet; they’re designed to make the device better in the moments people actually use it,” Abu Shamat says.

Samsung says the early response suggests consumers are seeing that value. 

According to the company, global preorders for the new Galaxy Z series were up more than 30% compared with the previous generation. In South Korea, Samsung reported 1.44 million preorders across the Fold8, Fold8 Ultra, and Flip8, prompting the company to increase manufacturing orders by an additional 1 million units in a single week.

THE ACCESS PROBLEM 

Samsung is pairing its hardware push with a range of ways for consumers to spread or reduce the cost of buying a foldable, including Buy Now Pay Later, installment plans, operator promotions and trade-in programs.

Abu Shamat says no single mechanism works for everyone.

“I don’t think there’s one option you can point to and say that’s the answer, because affordability means different things to different consumers,” he says.

For some consumers, installments make a premium device easier to manage financially. For others, Buy Now Pay Later offers flexibility, while trade-ins can let existing Galaxy customers apply some of the value of their current device toward a new one. Operator and banking partnerships provide another route.

The broader strategy, Abu Shamat says, is to look beyond the moment of purchase.

“Rather than looking at any one program in isolation, we look at the whole journey,” he says.

That journey starts with the product itself. Samsung continues to invest in hardware, software, and AI while working to make the technology more accessible.

“If we want foldables to reach a broader audience, we have to do both: keep raising the value of the product itself and make the journey to owning one easier.”

For Samsung, the challenge has shifted from getting consumers to understand what a foldable is to getting them to see how it fits into their lives.

“Once someone gets a Galaxy Z Fold8, Fold8 Ultra, or Flip8 into their hands and understands what that form factor can add to their everyday life, the proposition becomes much clearer,” Abu Shamat says.

“Our job is to deliver an experience worth investing in, and then make the path to owning it as simple and accessible as we can.”