Galaxy Z Fold 6 could sacrifice key feature to bring down price

The will they, won’t they rumours surrounding a cheaper version of the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 are settling on ‘they will’ this week.

According to a new report, Samsung plans on omitting some functionality in order to bring the cost down on a more budget-friendly version of the Galaxy Z Fold 6.

The ET News agency in Samsung’s South Korean homeland reckons the S Pen input support could be sacrificed to lower the price of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 standard edition.

The translated report from ET News reads: “Currently, Samsung Electronics is developing a total of two Galaxy Z Fold 6 [models], including a new Z Fold with pen input function and a model excluding pen input. This is a strategy to increase demand by reducing the price burden on foldable smartphones.”

According to the report, Samsung’s plans are a response to the incursion on a foldable market it has largely dominated since it launched the Z Fold and Z Flip ranges.

The report says a share of the market that was as high as 90% has now dropped to around 60% thanks to infusion from Chinese companies like Oppo, Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei.

A Galaxy Z Fold 6 that is a little cheaper than the base cost of £1,749/$1,799 for the Galaxy Z Fold 5, (which has made it really prohibitive for the majority of smartphone users – especially in the United States where hardware is not subsidised by the mobile operators anywhere near as much as it is in the United Kingdom) could entice some newcomers to range.

The Z Flip series is much cheaper, but is more of a high-functioning fashion-focused handset rather than a device that truly offers the benefits of both a smartphone and and a tablet.

Samsung is likely to show its hand for this year’s foldables at the next Unpacked event. We’d expect that sometime at the end of July.