The new Samsung foldables land on Friday, and the early reviews are mostly positive on the Z Fold 8’s new shape. The passport form factor is genuinely different, and at $1,899, it is still expensive, but reviewers say the hardware is the most polished foldable Samsung has shipped yet. While I’m not an Android user, I am a big fan of Samsung and their designs on a variety of products (we have a Samsung refrigerator).
What’s more interesting to me here is the fact that Samsung has already been producing flip and foldable smartphones. And they have had time to design, test, and launch these devices a few cycles now. This puts them ahead of the game compared to Apple.
The iPhone Ultra (the supposed foldable iPhone to be announced in September) will just be in its first generation, while Samsung will have a year or so more experience. This is very typical of Apple to watch the market, see how consumers react, and fine-tune and polish their product for their initial launch. The price points are comparable as well. This should be an interesting fall shopping season!