Galaxy Fold 2 Release date, price, specs,

(Galaxy Fold 2) Samsung’s Galaxy Fold was released in September 2019, and while it impressed the smartphone world with its ideas, the hardware couldn’t match up to expectations. Samsung isn’t put off, however, as it expects to sell 6 million foldable devices in 2020 and 20 million by 2021.

The upcoming foldable Samsung assumed to be called the Galaxy Fold 2, already has some general details leaked about its hardware, pricing, and release date.

Considering some worthy rivals to the foldable phone space are now emerging, such as the Motorola Razr 2019, it will be interesting to see how much Samsung can change and improve its foldable formula to keep itself on top of this newly emerged part of the smartphone market.

Galaxy Fold 2 News

• A new report says that the next Galaxy Fold will share the 108-MP camera and 5x zoom with the Galaxy S11.
• The latest unofficial render of the Galaxy Fold 2, based on a Samsung hinge patent, gives us an idea of how the final phone could look.
• An estimate made by a Korean Samsung analyst puts the price of the Galaxy Fold 2 at around $840, which is far cheaper than any other foldable phone.

Galaxy Fold 2 Release Date

We are expecting news of a new variety of foldable Samsung phones around February 2020, the expected release date for the Galaxy S11. It’s also rumored that the direct successor to the Galaxy Fold will appear around August 2020, so if you missed out on (or deliberately avoided) this year’s Fold, this will be Samsung’s next opportunity to sell you on its book-fold design.

The new clamshell-style foldable has been estimated to cost 1 million Korean Won, which is around $840 converted. This would be the cheapest foldable we’ve seen so far by a large margin and could do wonders for foldable phone adoption around the world.

However, managing to make this kind of device cost less than not only the original Galaxy Fold’s $1,980, but also the current range of $1,000 premium flagship phones, will require some major changes to the Fold design we’ve seen already.

Galaxy Fold 2 Price

The Motorola Razr costs $1,500, which it manages to achieve through a smaller size and less powerful components. This is the route the Galaxy Fold 2 will need to take in order to achieve a similar cost.

As for the upgraded Galaxy Fold, there’s no rumored price, and the only guideline we have is the $1,980 price of the existing model. Let’s hope that Samsung drops that a little, or adds some more features to compensate.

Galaxy Fold 2 Design

The brand new clamshell design of the Fold 2 was first seen at a Samsung One UI developer event. The design looks an awful lot like the Motorola Razr foldable released this month, folding out into a large phone rather than the small tablet of the Galaxy Fold. It’s since appeared in renders by LetsGoDigital, which you can see below.

This design, including what’s been described by a patent as a ‘Samsung Hideaway Hinge,' is assumed to work similarly to the Razr’s hinge system. This system bends the screen tightly but within the phone’s frame, avoiding the semi-open design of the Galaxy Fold that not only made the phone larger to carry around but left the important inner displays uncovered and damageable.

The direct successor to the Galaxy Fold may be based on the W20 5G, the foldable Samsung revealed in Beijing in early November. This is almost identical to the Galaxy Fold, but it has a new exterior frame that means it can now close tighter, hopefully preventing damage from debris getting under or between the two internal displays.

Galaxy Fold 2 Display

We have no indication of how large the flexible interior display will be on the Galaxy Fold 2, but it is reasonable to assume that it will be smaller than the Galaxy Fold’s display.

The original Fold’s main 7.3-inch AMOLED display was marred by a significant crease down the center of the display. It’s important that Samsung solves this issue for the Fold 2 since Motorola’s Razr already manages to hide its folding point using its clever hinge which has built-in supporting plates to prop up that part of the display.

There’s also the matter of the external display. The Galaxy Fold sports a front-facing 4.6-inch AMOLED screen, which you could use as a normal albeit small phone without opening it up. This doesn’t look possible to the same extent on the small external faces of the Galaxy Fold 2 concept images, but we can still hope for a small display with limited functions like the Razr.

The original Galaxy Fold’s internal display is made with plastic, which allows it to fold at the cost of durability. But Samsung has been in talks with a Korean supplier of flexible glass, perhaps pointing to a foldable glass display which would be a significant boost in quality and practicality for the new phone.

Another rumor floating around is that the new Galaxy Fold will be compatible with the S Pen stylus, usually found with the Galaxy Note series. With a larger display possibly larger than even the 6.8-inch Note 10 Plus, it would be a smart decision by Samsung to make this happen. And since Galaxy Note users are already willing to buy the most expensive phone in Samsung’s lineup, perhaps they’re the ideal candidates to persuade to upgrade to a new foldable device.

Main Display

• 7.3" QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED Display (4.2:3)
• Infinity Flex Display (2152x1536)
• 362ppi

The screen measured diagonally as a rectangle without accounting for the rounded corners and the upper cutout. The actual viewable area is less due to the rounded corners and the upper cutout

Cover Display

• 4.6" HD+ Super AMOLED Display (21:9)
• 720x1680
• 399ppi

The screen measured diagonally as a rectangle without accounting for the rounded corners. The actual viewable area is short due to the rounded corners.

Galaxy Fold 2 Cameras

There’s no news yet on what cameras would appear on the Galaxy Fold 2, but we can try and figure out what it might include based on existing foldable models.

One can assume that like other inward-folding foldable, there will be three places for cameras: front, rear, and interior. There’s six in total on the Galaxy Fold (three rear, one on the front and two inside), while the Razr uses two, with one doubling up as both the front and rear camera based on how you're using the phone.

Cover Camera

• 10MP Selfie Camera
• Pixel size: 1.22μm
• FOV: 80˚
• F.No (aperture): F2.2

Front Dual camera Camera

1

• 10MP Selfie Camera
• Pixel size: 1.22μm
• FOV: 80˚
• F.No (aperture): F2.2

2

• 8MP RGB Depth Camera
• Pixel Size: 1.12μm
• FOV: 85˚
• F.No (aperture): F1.9
• Live focus

Live focus on Galaxy Fold's front camera uses the dual front camera. Live focus images on the front camera is shot utilizing the NPU.

Triple Rear Camera

1

• 16MP Ultra Wide Camera
• Pixel size: 1.0μm
• FOV: 123˚
• F.No (aperture): F2.2

2

• 12MP Wide-angle Camera
• SuperSpeed Dual Pixel AF, OIS
• Pixel size: 1.4μm
• FOV: 77˚
• Dual Aperture: F1.5 mode/F2.4 mode

3

• 12MP Telephoto Camera
• PDAF, OIS
• Pixel size: 1.0μm
• FOV: 45˚
• F.No (aperture): F2.4

Galaxy Fold 2 Specs

Currently, the Galaxy Fold runs on a Snapdragon 855 CPU, but the W20 5G, an upgraded derivative, uses a Snapdragon 855 Plus chip. There’s also a chance that a new Galaxy Fold would use the newest high-performance Qualcomm chip, the Snapdragon 865, but Samsung may not do this for pricing, much like how the Motorola Razr uses a mid-range Snapdragon 710 in its new foldable flagship

We’ve seen what looks to be the smaller half of the Galaxy Fold 2’s battery system, thanks to a leak from SamMobile. This cell only has a 900 mAh capacity, and since it’s the smaller half we can expect its counterpart to be a lot larger, but we’re not anticipating the Galaxy Fold 2 to have an enormous battery capacity because of its assumed smaller size.

The Galaxy Fold has a capacity of 4,380 mAh (4,235 mAh on the 5G model), which is plenty for full unfolded use, while the Razr has 2,510 mAh of capacity, which is fairly small. If the Fold 2 could have a total capacity somewhere between these phones, it should have enough juice to last for a day of normal usage.

Galaxy Fold 2 5G

5G is another emerging phone technology and one we hope we’ll see on the Galaxy Fold 2. The original Fold has a 5G version, and while this new version looks to be a lot smaller and cheaper, 5G compatibility is now coming as standard with the latest generation of system-on-chips (including the new Snapdragon 865). Depending on which CPU Samsung puts in the Fold 2, it could be 5G by default, or it may try to sell a 4G model and a 5G model like it did with the original Fold.

Bigger, Faster Charging Battery

The Galaxy Fold 2 has a 4380mAh battery (or 4,235mAh in the 5G version) is fairly large by smartphone standards but this isn’t a standard smartphone, and while battery life is very solid, there’s always room for improvement.

So for the Galaxy Fold 2, we had like to see Samsung squeeze an even bigger battery into it making the most of that large size for very long life.

MicroSD Card Slot

A small point this one, but the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2, big as it is has not found space for a microSD card slot. Given that it comes with 512GB of storage this isn’t a big deal, but it’s still something we’d like to see offered in version two.

Bottom Line

When it comes to foldable, there is still not a lot to choose from, and most foldable handsets have yet to impress without having major caveats. Samsung seems very serious about its foldable even after the problems it went through with the Galaxy Fold and seems to be intending something very different for its next flexible device.

If the Galaxy Fold 2 matches up to the features suggested in these leaks, it will be an unbelievable phone for the suggested price. Even if it does turn out to be a lot more expensive or lacks some of the rumored functionality, as long as it’s well built, it could still do better than the original Galaxy Fold and help propel foldable phones into the mainstream.