
Samsung unveiled its latest foldable smartphones, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, during its Unpacked event in Paris, France, signaling a significant advancement in its ongoing competition with Apple for global smartphone market leadership. Priced at $1,099 for the Z Flip 6 and $1,899 for the Z Fold 6, the new models are positioned firmly within the premium smartphone segment, reflecting a $100 increase over their predecessors. This pricing places them in direct competition with Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro, which starts at $999, and iPhone 15 Pro Max, starting at $1,199, as well as Samsung’s own S24-series devices, which range from $799 to $1,299.
A standout feature for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 is Samsung’s integration of its Galaxy AI platform, designed to enhance user experience through generative AI capabilities. These smartphones offer a suite of AI-driven features, such as real-time translation, advanced conversation tools, photo editing, and productivity enhancements. The software first appeared with the S24 lineup earlier in the year and has seen high engagement among users—77% of S24 users reportedly access these AI features weekly. Among the most popular tools are Google’s Circle to Search, which allows users to snap a photo of an object or text for web search or translation, and Samsung’s Edit Suggestions, which offers AI-generated text suggestions for messages and emails.
The unique foldable designs of the Fold 6 and Flip 6 enhance their functionality with the Galaxy AI platform. For instance, the new conversation feature in the Interpreter app allows seamless conversations in different languages, utilizing the phones’ cover screens and main displays to show real-time translations. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 can be positioned like a mini laptop or book, enabling convenient bilingual conversations. This function is meant to provide effortless, real-time translations and is similar to features found on Google’s Pixel Fold.
Both phones are equipped with Google’s Gemini app, accessible via a quick screen swipe or voice command. Gemini offers a range of features including idea brainstorming, trip itinerary planning, and location information through Google Maps.
Additionally, Galaxy AI’s productivity features now include PDF translation in the Samsung Notes app, preserving the layout of documents while translating, thereby solving the common issue of losing formatting during translation.
Design-wise, the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 maintain a similar appearance to their predecessors, the Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5, with minor refinements. The Z Fold 6 sports a slightly larger 6.3-inch cover screen, enhancing its resemblance to a standard smartphone when closed—a welcomed improvement despite being just a 0.1-inch increase. The Z Flip 6 inherits the main camera from the flagship S24 and introduces a new ultra-wide-angle camera. Its battery capacity matches that of the S24, ensuring no compromise in performance for users choosing the Flip variant.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 boasts a 50-megapixel main camera, combined with a new 12MP ultra-wide-angle and a 12MP telephoto camera featuring 3x optical and up to 30x digital zoom. Both models are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and come with 12GB of memory. Storage options for the Flip include 256GB and 512GB, while the Fold offers 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB versions.
While facing competition from other foldable devices by Huawei, Xiaomi, and Motorola, Samsung aims to maintain its dominant position with the robust Galaxy AI platform featured in the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6.