We’ve been hearing rumors about a third Samsung foldable for quite some time now. Rumors have encompassed a seemingly-canceled Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 FE and a Galaxy Fold Ultra — and apparently now they've pivoted to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim. Unfortunately, the latest report suggests that the Z Fold 6 Slim won’t quite live up to its name.
Instead, the Z Fold 6 Slim will reportedly be around 0.6mm (0.02 inches) thinner than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 — measuring 11.5mm when closed. For reference, a microSD card is about half a millimeter thick. And anyone that’s ever seen a microSD card knows that they are pretty skinny. To the point where you might struggle to pick them up off a flat surface if you’re not careful.
Needless to say, that’s not a lot of difference in thickness, especially when you consider it’s just 0.3mm on each side of the phone. And it’s just another symptom of the main problem with Samsung foldables — general neglect.
Samsung’s already being beaten by thinner foldables
The worst thing about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim’s rumored thickness isn’t that it isn’t that much thinner than the regular Z Fold 6. It’s the fact that it’s still noticeably thicker than rival foldables from a variety of different companies. Even Google, whose Pixel 9 Pro Fold is expected to arrive at the Made By Google event on August 13, is rumored to be 10.5mm thick when folded — a whole 1mm/0.03 inches smaller than the Z Fold 6’s 11.5mm.
Similarly, the OnePlus Open, which is our pick for the best foldable phone, measures 11.7mm thick when it’s folded. That is thicker than the Z Fold 6 Slim is expected to be, but not by much. And this is a phone that went on sale last October.
Considering the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim isn’t expected to launch until later this year, likely during or after October, Samsung may be about to lose that battle before it’s had a chance to join in. That’s provided you ignore the Chinese market, where foldables are a much bigger deal than they are in the U.S.
A bunch of Chinese phone makers have a whole portfolio of foldable phones on sale right now, and wouldn’t you know there are plenty of options that are thinner than the Z Fold 6 Slim is rumored to be. The Huawei Mate X5 (released September 2023) is 11.1mm thick, while the Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 and Honor Magic V3 (both released in July 2024) are 9.5mm and 9.3mm thick, respectively.
These companies have all clearly put in the effort into their foldables to reduce their thickness. Because slim phones are good phones, according to a smartphone marketing department. I imagine that was accomplished in a number of ways — some of which may not be that great. We could be talking smaller hinges, smaller (and thinner batteries) and any number of different ways to save space and keep the phone super thin.
Meanwhile, Samsung’s method is apparently to remove the digitizer, the display layer that powers S Pen stylus functionality. And it just so happens that this layer is 0.3mm thick — exactly the same amount of space Samsung has reportedly shaved from each half of the phone. Which, if true, just seems rather lazy to me.
Samsung doesn’t seem to be that interested in upgrading its foldables
I’ve said this a lot over the past couple of years, but it’s worth reiterating again. Often it feels like Samsung doesn’t have much interest in actually upgrading its foldable phones from one generation to the next. I’ve always blamed this on general complacency, with the company operating as though it’s still the only major player in the foldable phone market.
The Galaxy Z series is taking the idea of iterative upgrades to new extremes, and considering the price of these phones it seems straight-up insulting.
That’s the only logical reason why Samsung would continually release foldables with the same camera hardware as its predecessor (and sometimes its grand-predecessor). Iterative upgrades are nothing new in the smartphone world, and the gaps between each subsequent generation seems to have gotten smaller and smaller over the past 8-10 years. But the Galaxy Z series seems to be taking the idea of iterative upgrades to new extremes, and considering the price of these phones it seems straight-up insulting.
One of my biggest pet peeves with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 was Samsung making a huge deal about the phone’s new design — even though the difference between it and the Z Fold 5 was just a few millimeters. And considering how the Z Fold 6 Slim is barely any slimmer than the standard Z Fold 6, it almost feels like Samsung is giving up on offering actual design upgrades — and has instead decided to gaslight consumers into thinking miniscule changes are more substantial than they actually are.
Admittedly, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim right now. It could be that the rumors are completely wrong, and Samsung has developed the world’s thinnest foldable phone with the help of some ultra-thin (and ultra-expensive) components. And there could be a smorgasbord of new features that might make the phone worth buying compared to the competition. It’s just weird that we haven’t heard anything about it.
Based on what we’ve heard about the Z Fold 6 Slim so far, the only intriguing feature is the larger 8-inch display. Considering both the OnePlus Open and Z Fold 6 aren’t that much smaller, measuring 7.8-inches and 7.6 inches, that may not be that big a selling point
It’s always wise to be skeptical of rumors, because you never know where they’ve come from or how accurate they might be. But it’s usually pretty rare for them to be that far off the mark this close to launch. They’re not infallible, but I’ve been paying close attention to phone rumors for over a decade now, and in my experience the most wildly incorrect rumors are the ones that broke several months ahead of release.
Is it about China? I doubt it
You don’t hear much about Chinese foldables in the U.S. because they’re not on sale here. Chinese foldables aren’t limited to the Chinese market, and they’ve been around for a long time, but the home turf is what those companies seem to focus on the most. It’s what’s allowed Samsung to dominate the North American foldable market for so long — a Z series was the only real option available.
China doesn’t have that problem, and with all the options it’s no surprise that the foldable phone market has been growing — with a 104% growth in the second quarter of 2024. Samsung, meanwhile, commanded just 1.4% of that market.
I had wondered whether the Z Fold 6 Slim was supposed to try and invigorate Samsung’s foldable portfolio in the Chinese market. After all, there had been rumors that the low-cost Galaxy Z Fold 6 FE would be aimed at Chinese buyers — albeit not exclusive to the region. But the more I hear about the Slim, the less likely I think that is.
What we’ve heard about the Z Fold 6 Slim so far isn’t that impressive, especially where the thickness of the device is concerned. Not to mention the fact that only 400k-500k units of this phone are expected to be released, and are reportedly going on sale in multiple regions. If China is the white whale of the foldable market, then its Ahab probably needs to be some sort of competitive and exclusive model. Something better than the Z Fold 6 Slim is shaping up to be.
Without some sort of killer feature, the picture of the Z Fold 6 Slim we have right now doesn’t feel like it stands a chance against Chinese brands on their home turf.
Bottom Line
We still have a little way to go before October, when the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim is expected to arrive. It could be that the rumors change, and that everything we’ve heard up until now has been a complete lie. Or maybe the phone gets canned, just like the Z Fold 6 FE and Ultra that came before it. Maybe it won’t even be called the Slim, at which point the minimal loss of thickness won’t even matter.
But right now it feels like Samsung is careening further into a whirlpool of complacency that it’s responsible for creating. It’s almost as though Samsung’s response to the ever-growing foldable competition is to stick a pair of Galaxy Buds into its ear screaming “lalalala” and hope things work out ok in the end. But you can ask BlackBerry or Blockbuster how well that particular strategy works.
Here’s hoping those promising early Galaxy Z Fold 7 rumors actually come to fruition, or else Samsung’s continued foldable success is going to hinge on Google and OnePlus royally screwing things up. Whch could easily happen; dGoogle Pixels aren't well known for consistency after all, but that’s not something I’d bet my business on.
Let's just hope, at the very least, that the Z Fold 6 Slim isn't fond of catching on fire.
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