Samsung’s Cheaper Galaxy Flip 7 FE Foldable Phone Shows Up in New Leak

New renders of the rumored Galaxy Z Flip7 FE phone, a less expensive various to final 12 months’s Z Flip 6, have hit the web through notable leaker Evan Blass. The photographs have been shared Monday on smartphone information website Cellphone Area.

The FE stands for Founders Version and is Samsung’s method of providing comparable units with barely weakened specs for extra reasonably priced costs. Previous FE telephones embrace the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and the Galaxy Tab S10 FE and FE Plus.

The renders exhibit a tool that appears similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 6, showing in white and black colorways. Cellphone Area studies that the Flip 6 FE may have related {hardware} as final 12 months’s Flip 6 however could swap out the Snapdragon chip for a Samsung-made Exynos processor. 

Blass additionally shared renders of the flagship Galaxy Z Flip 7 which, if correct, will drop the digital camera cutaway and have the display screen operating edge-to-edge, with cutouts for the cameras, very similar to the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025.

Foldable telephones, as soon as $2,000 units, have slowly began creeping downwards in value as designs have improved and extra gamers have entered the area. Regardless of extra foldable telephones getting into the market, it is nonetheless a smaller piece of the general bigger smartphone pie. 

Trendforce predicted final 12 months that 17.8 million foldables would ship in 2024, making up only one.5% of total smartphone shipments. Foldable telephone shipments truly decreased by 1%, making it the section’s first-ever Q3 decline, in line with Counterpoint Research. That decline was attributed to weak efficiency from the Samsung’s Z Flip 6, which was a gentle enchancment over 2023’s mannequin. 

Whereas Samsung is the foldable market world chief at 56% share, the Z Flip and Fold 6 noticed shipments fall 21%. With extra thrilling handsets popping out of China, the place Samsung has a smaller presence, shoppers may be holding out for both cheaper costs or extra thrilling designs. Already, rumors claim that Apple might be readying its own foldable device, which can develop the market in addition to pull share from Samsung. 

There are different considerations with foldables, aside from the upper value. In keeping with a 2023 Kantar report, 55% of early foldable buyers later switched back to a regular slab phone. Decrease battery life and software program uncertainty is what drove folks away, in line with the report. A 2024 YouGov report mentioned 56% of younger adults mentioned durability was a major concern when contemplating a foldable.

Some foldable telephones are seeing extra reasonably priced costs, notably, the brand new Motorola Razr 2025, which has a beginning value of $700. If the rumored Z Flip 7 FE can match or undercut Motorola, that might entice some shoppers.