Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition. It’s thinner and lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 6, with a larger display and improved camera system.
The Z Fold Special Edition also comes with 16GB of RAM that supports the “foldable-optimized Galaxy AI experience” and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for the Galaxy chipset. We have yet to hear how much storage will be shipped with this unit.
The Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition will only be available in South Korea when it launches on October 25th, with the sole Black Shadow color option priced at KRW 2,789,600 (or approximately $2,000/GBP/AU$1,550).
Leaks have been hinting at a South Korean release for months, but a rumored Chinese release remains unconfirmed. There is no indication of a wider worldwide release at this time.
The official announcement included a comment from Sungtaek Lim, executive vice president of Samsung Korea, who called the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition “a token of our gratitude to domestic consumers who lead the foldable market.”
We hope that the upgrades given to the Z Fold Special Edition will be reflected in the next Z Fold phones released globally, but the Z Fold 6 was only released in August, so until we find out… It may take a while.
With that in mind, here’s a summary of the key upgrades coming to the Z Fold Special Edition.
Bigger, wider display
The Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition has a 6.5-inch outer display and an 8-inch inner display, while the Galaxy Z Fold 6 has a 6.3-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display.
The Z Fold 6 couldn’t quite catch up to rival phones like the OnePlus Open and Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold in terms of display size, so these bigger increases bring Samsung back on par with its competitors. The 21:9 aspect ratio also makes the Special Edition’s outer display proportionally wider than the Z Fold 6’s narrow 22:9 cover screen.
The Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition boasts the same nearly square 20:18 aspect ratio as the Z Fold 6’s inner display, the first time since the Z Fold 2 launched in 2020 that the inner display has increased in size.
Truly a flagship camera
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition could be a turning point for the Z Fold series by finally offering a photography experience that rivals Samsung’s flagship slab phones.
The Z Fold Special Edition has a 200MP main wide camera with the same resolution as the main camera on the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. This is a big step up from the 50MP main camera installed on the Z Fold 6. At least on paper.
In our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 review, we found its 50MP camera to be a frustrating oversight. So we’re happy to see steps towards parity with Samsung’s other ultra-premium phones, and we hope the same steps are taken with the next global Z Fold release.
thinner and lighter
The race to make thinner slab phones has been dead for years, but in the foldable world the competition is only heating up.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition is 10.6 mm thick when folded, making it 1.5 mm thinner than the Z Fold 6.
Weighing in at 236g, it’s 3g lighter than the Z Fold 6, a slight improvement but still a welcome advantage for one-handed use.
This means the Z Fold Special Edition is thinner and lighter than other flagship folding smartphones, thinner than the OnePlus Open and Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, but it still beats the Honor Magic V3.
We hope Samsung maintains the same competitive spirit when it comes to the design of its next global Z Fold smartphone.
As mentioned above, we are unlikely to see a global release of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, but if not, this new phone will earn a spot on our list of best Samsung phones and best folding phones. I was hoping to hit it.
As always, be sure to check your Samsung phone coverage for the latest updates.
