It’s no secret that Samsung’s launching a new set of folding smartphones, likely as soon as 11 August this year, but we’re not sure how much they’ll cost. Or are we? The Korea Herald has apparent pricing for the not-yet-confirmed folding smartphone range and they actually look attainable. More or less.
See, last year’s Fold 2 was an excellent device but that price left it out of reach of all but a few. This new report indicates a more accessible price — and might point towards the Note range actually disappearing, despite Samsung’s protests to the contrary.
The price of a Samsung Fold
Pricing expectations for the Galaxy Fold 3 and the Galaxy Flip 3 are 1.99 million won and 1.28 million won respectively. In local terms, that means the Fold 3 would start at around R25,500 and the Flip 3 at an almost reasonable R16,500. We’d expect the price to climb a little higher here in SA but Samsung might try and keep the cost down with the aim of shifting a few more of its folding units.
We say a few, but the company is targeting a 300% in folding smartphone shipments this year and one way to do that is to price them more affordably. The company could, with its introduction of S Pen support for the Fold lineup, also be hoping to capture the attention of Note users. Despite Samsung saying we’d see one this year and numerous leaks ahead of the next Unpacked, we haven’t seen any sign of the lineup in 2021. It’s not like the South Korean tech-maker to keep this tight a lid on anything, especially an existing product line.
The apparent price drop might serve another purpose beyond tempting its fans into trying out a third-generation folding smartphone. Apple’s iPhone 13 will be announced soon and Tim Cook and friends only know what ‘affordable’ is so they can avoid it at all costs. A lower price point for a folding smartphone could swing that year-end spend more in Samsung’s direction. Whatever the truth winds up being, we’ll see all of the details on 11 August. Now if Samsung will just issue invites for the event already…
Source: Korea Herald