Samsung unveils the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 – but what’s actually new?

Samsung has dominated the folding phone market since it launched the first-generation folding devices in 2019. These folding devices take advantage of OLED’s inherent flexibility, with the challenge posed not by the panel, but by the glass that sits on its front and protects it.

The 2024 updates to the family see the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, a clamshell-type device, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, which offers a book-type folding design. That’s been the pattern of launches from Samsung over the past 5 years, so it begs the question of what’s actually changed?

I got my hands on the new phones prior to launch to take a closer look.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6: Design and build changes

While the Galaxy Z Fold is the flagship device – and also Samsung’s most expensive phone – it only makes up 30 per cent of foldable sales for the company. The Galaxy Z Flip is more popular – and also the beneficiary of plenty of TV advertising. The Galaxy Z Flip has immediate retro appeal, with a design that’s reminiscent of flip phones of the past while offering a practical advantage – you fold it in half so it’s more compact in your pocket or bag.

So the Z Flip 6 has something of a trend advantage as it launches. It’s being offered in Silver Shadow, Yellow, Blue and Mint colours, but there will also be Crafted Black, White and Peach colours as a Samsung.com exclusive – and I’d predict more colours and options in the future.

Samsung has adapted the design and squared it off. The curves towards the edges of the frame have been minimised and it looks better as a result. The actual dimensions haven’t changed, but it’s slightly thinner when folded comparted to the old model – 14.9mm compared to 15.1mm. Yes, 0.2mm thinner.

That probably comes down to a new hinge design, which Samsung tells me is stronger. That applies to the Armor Aluminum frame, while the front and back of the phone uses Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2, designed to reduce scratches. The new design brings with it an IP48 rating, so there’s now a little protection from dust as well as water.

Samsung also told me that the UTG – ultra thin glass – that protects the display is now stronger too, with previous reports suggesting that it would be thicker, moving from 30 microns to 50 microns in thickness. So that’s thicker ultra thin glass – got it?

Finally on the design – and this is purely aesthetics – the camera lenses are now ringed with a colour to match the body, which makes them stand out a little more.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6: Display, hardware and camera changes

So let’s get to the meat in this high-tech sandwich. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy. That’s (currently) the latest Qualcomm hardware for phones, with a bump to 12GB of RAM. That should mean it’s a little more powerful than the previous iteration, but not by a huge amount. Still, it’s flagship-level and that’s reflected in the price.

The battery increases to 4,000mAh and there’s now a vapour chamber in the Z Flip 6 for the first time. This will aid cooling of the device, so should help it sustain higher performance for longer.

Then we have the displays. The external display hasn’t changed, it’s still a 3.4-inch AMOLED screen with 60Hz and as much as I love the external display, I still find it’s only really useful for glanceable information, unlike the Z Fold 6, where the external display is basically an entire phone screen.

The internal display – you guessed it – also hasn’t changed. It’s still a 6.7-inch AMOLED display, still bright and vibrant and still with a bit of a crease – although having used folding phones for many years, I can’t say I’m ever bothered by the crease.

So the real change comes in the camera, where there’s new hardware. Specifically, the main camera jumps from the 12-megapixel sensor on the Z Flip 5 to a 50-megapixel sensor for that main camera. That’s the same camera as the Galaxy S24+, as Samsung looks to level-up this phone. The immediate advantage should be better 2x zoom performance through sensor cropping.

There’s also a new lens on the ultrawide camera said to improve low light and HDR performance, but beyond that, new features will come from Galaxy AI software enhancements, which I’ll talk about below, as they also apply to the Z Fold 6.

One final thing that hasn’t changed is the price: the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 still starts at £1049.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6: Design and build changes

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 benefits from those changes that the Flip gets, so the Armor Aluminum frame is stronger and squared off, for a more precise design. This time there is a change to the size of the phone – growing by 1mm in height, and 2.7mm in width when the phone is open. Importantly, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is also thinner versus the Z Fold 5 – down to 5.6mm when open (12.1mm when closed).

It is again finished in Gorilla Glass Victus 2 to keep scratches at bay, while the phone gets an IP48 rating too. I’d perhaps be hesitant to take it to the beach, but it’s now better equipped to deal with it.

The phone will be available in Silver Shadow, Pink and Navy colours, while Samsung.com will exclusively offer Crafted Black and White options. There are fewer colours than the Z Flip 6, but as it sells less and is less of a fashion-focused device, I’m not surprised.

Again, the Z Fold 6 benefits from changes to make the phone stronger, including that UTG layer on the display. There’s still a crease, but again, I don’t think the crease matters. Afterall, this is a folding phone and once open and illuminated, I never really notice the crease. The only time I become aware of it is when swiping over that area of the display with a finger.

The price has also changed: the Galaxy Z Fold 6 now starts at £1,799.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6: Display, hardware and camera changes

That leads me appropriately to the display. There are changes here that, while small, take the Z Fold 6 in the direction it needs to head. The exterior – or cover – display grows a little to 6.3 inches, but importantly it’s a little wider, shifting to an aspect ratio that’s a little more useful (22.1:9). The aim is to give you a display that’s not as tall and narrow as it has been previously.

The external display does, however, do everything any other phone will do. Unlike the Z Flip 6 where the cover screen is mostly for decoration, widgets, notifications and some clever Flex Mode features, the cover screen on the Z Fold 6 is a full phone experience.

The main display gets an upgrade too. It’s still a 7.6-inch AMOLED display that’s almost square, but it’s boosted in brightness to 2,600 nits. That’s up from 1,750 nits on the Z Fold 5, so a significant increase. That will help cut through reflections on this big display when using it in bright conditions, but it’s also going to give a boost to the performance of HDR content. It’s also the same peak brightness as the Galaxy S24 Ultra and I’ve really enjoyed the benefits of increasing peak brightness on smartphones over the past year – especially on the Pixel 8 Pro.

Again the Z Fold 6 moves to Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, but it sticks to the 12GB RAM as before. There’s a 1.6x larger vapour chamber to enhance cooling, which again should mean that the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is better at delivering peak performance for longer.

That’s it for changes – the battery and cameras remain the same, with enhancements coming from software, which I’ll briefly talk about now.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 new software features

One of the advantages of having a Samsung phone, is that features usually drift from one device to another – especially between Galaxy S and Galaxy Z models. The new Galaxy Z phones will launch on Android 14 with One UI 6.1.1. There are a couple of features unique to folding phones – i.e., those that use Flex Mode (when the phone is half folded so both screens can be used at once), but some will likely land on other Samsung devices with Android 15 and One UI 7 later in the year.

Also bear in mind that Samsung is offering 7 years of software support for these phones too, so that’s Android OS updates and security updates until 2031.

Samsung is framing the new folding phones as the first phones to benefit from Galaxy AI. That includes the photos editing skills that we’ve seen before, but a few extras too. There’s a Portrait Studio that can change the style of your selfie into a comic book image for example, while the S Pen on the Z Fold 6 can be boosted by a Sketch to Image feature that will let you draw extra things on the photo that get rendered by AI.

There’s an autozoom function to boost your photos when you don’t have someone else taking it – using AI to change the zoom to fit you in the frame better, while AI also boosts low light shooting.

Suggested replies in messages will now be contextual, with Galaxy AI scanning previous messages in the conversation so that its suggestions are the right tone, while translations will work through an interpreter mode so you can have a conversation in different languages and both parties will be able to read what’s happening on different screens of the phone.

Finally, Google Assistant seems to have been retired, with Gemini now baked-in as the AI assistant on the new Samsung phones.

Summing up

Overall Samsung is bringing a range of changes to these devices, starting with a sharper design and increased protection, for stronger phones with better dust resistance. Both benefit from flagship-grade power, with cooling to ensure prolonged performance.

The Z Flip 6’s main hardware boost is the new main camera, while the Z Fold 6 benefits from a brighter main display and larger cover screen, in a thinner body that’s a little taller and wider.

Beyond that, most of the changes are software-based and likely to come to Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 in the future, while other Galaxy AI features may be available on recent Galaxy S models too.

So this is a case of refinement for these devices, with prices that are more or less the same as they were before. Discounts come frequently for Samsung phones, so buying the previous generation could make a big difference to your pocket, but not a huge difference to the overall experience.

But, that 7 years of software support for these new phones is important and they certainly look better too.