One of the few things not “fixed” in Samsung’s dramatically improved second-generation foldables is the pricing. The Galaxy Z Fold 2 costs $1,999 and the Galaxy Z Flip 5G goes for $1,449. Regardless of whether you appreciate that this is brand new and groundbreaking technology, that’s still a lot of money to spend on a phone.
Thankfully, if the most recent rumor from SamMobile is true that may change this year with the starting prices for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 allegedly dropping by up to 20% from their predecessors.
That could bring the Galaxy Z Fold 3 to roughly $1,600 and see the Galaxy Z Flip 3 come down to $1,159. That’s not going to qualify them for our best budget phones anytime soon, but it would make the Galaxy Z Flip 3 price competitive with high-end flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra or iPhone 12 Pro Max. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 would still be the most expensive phone on the market, but within $150-$200 of the top-end configurations for traditional flagships, which isn’t that bad considering it is arguably a phone and a tablet replacement.
There are a few caveats as is usually the case with rumors. SamMobile certainly has proven to have inside sources with Samsung in the past, but they aren’t infallible. In this case, their source only offered that the prices would be “up to 20% cheaper.” Even assuming this source is correct, that makes this sound like an unsettled matter within Samsung.
With that said, it would be shocking if Samsung didn’t drop the prices on these foldables this year after we saw a $200 price cut across the entire Samsung Galaxy S21 lineup. While some of this could simply be reduced cost as the manufacturing processes for the specialized components improve, we’ll have to wait and see if we also get feature reductions. That certainly hasn’t been the implication of Galaxy Z Fold 3 rumors so far with some saying it will have an IP rating for water and dust, an in-display camera, and S Pen support to name a few.
Whatever the case, we shouldn’t have too much longer to wait as the rumored release date for these foldables is either July or August.
