This Prime Day Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 deal is so good I’m not waiting for the Fold 5
If you haven't heard, foldables are all the rage this summer. New devices from Google and Motorola — not to mention the upcoming arrival of whatever OnePlus has — are finally giving Samsung some much-needed competition in North America. There's no doubt the company hopes to hold onto its early lead in this product category once the next-gen Galaxy Z-series launches on July 26th. If early leaks are any indication, though, you should skip waiting for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and save yourself a few hundred bucks in the process, because the Fold 4's Prime Day price is the deal to beat.
Source: Samsung Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 $1100 $1800 Save $700 The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is one of the best folding phones you can buy right now. While its replacement is due to launch in the coming weeks, its $1,100 price for Prime Day is absolutely unbeatable — you shouldn't pass it up. $1100 at Amazon
I've used the Galaxy Z Fold 4 on and off for nearly a year now, ever since former AP editor Ryne Hager sent me his review unit. It was my first foldable ever — of any shape — and a great entry point to come on. A year later, it's not quite as impressive as it was in 2022, but not by any fault of Samsung's. Instead, I've spent the first half of this year traveling to various tech-centric events, checking out phones like the Moto Razr+, the Pixel Fold, and even devices like the Huawei Mate X3. Once you see the competition, it's clear that Samsung isn't moving fast enough to hold its position against the competition.
But that only matters at its normal $1,800 price point. At $1,100 — its Prime Day price tag — things get a lot more interesting. Suddenly, that gap between the two screens, the one that seems so distracting next to the Pixel Fold? It's a lot easier to ignore (and it could even save your displays if early Pixel Fold units are anything to go by). The so-so cameras? While they won't rival what's found in the company's own Galaxy S23 Ultra, they're capable enough of capturing shots with that typical Samsung look that so many users love, especially in good lighting. The weird under-display camera? It's unlikely to improve much on the next model!
Sure, there's a Galaxy Z Fold 5 on the way, and it'll fix some of the problems I've outlined above. It'll almost certainly sport a camera improvement, though whether it's enough to make a difference remains to be seen. The biggest change seems to be to the hinge, as numerous leaks have shown the Galaxy Z Fold 5 folding flat. If that's important enough to you to spend an additional $700 — or more — next month, by all means, keep waiting for Unpacked in a couple of weeks.
At this price, who cares about a gap?
But for everyone else — those who don't mind leaving novelty behind for the sake of a good deal — the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is an obvious pick this Prime Day. While the rest of the world has seen affordable alternatives to Samsung's folding phones like the Tecno Phantom V Fold, consumers in the US have been stuck paying nearly two grand for devices like this. Accepting that you won't have the latest and greatest come early August is pretty easy to do when the discount is this cheap.
So what do you have to compromise on to save $700? It's not the displays — leaks suggest those are set to stay the same on the Z Fold 5, with a 6.2" screen on the front and a 6.76" panel inside. It's not the cameras, as all three sensors are rumored to be unchanged this year as well. Samsung presumably managed to slim the phone down — dropping its width from 16mm to somewhere around 13mm, while the weight could be just 254g — but does that really matter at this price point?
Really, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 feels like it's shaping up to be a stopgap, an iterative update just like the one the Galaxy S23 Ultra received this year. Even then, though, it's unlikely to be as noticeable as the changes in Samsung's S-series lineup. While the S22 phones utilized Qualcomm's problematic Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, the Z Fold 4 uses the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, a chipset so good it's still being used in 2023 smartphones. The jump from that chip to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 — almost certainly what powers the Galaxy Z Fold 5 — just won't be as obvious.
Even the biggest factor that keeps some consumers from buying year-old phones — software support — is a non-factor when it comes to Samsung. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is set to receive three more OS upgrades, bringing it to Android 16 in 2025. It's also supported for five years of security patches, bringing its full lifespan to 2027. Sure, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 will live to see Android 17, but is that worth an extra $700 upfront?
Come this time next year, Samsung will once again be teeing up to launch another generation of foldables. It sounds like the next Galaxy Z-series will see a big reinvention, potentially swapping to the Pixel Fold's book-esque hinge. While I found Google's implementation flawed, there's no doubt that it's an appealing change for users everywhere. Whether you're a budget-focused shopper or obsessed with novelty, do yourself a favor and grab the Galaxy Z Fold 4 this year before the real changes arrive in 2024.
Source: Android Police
