Samsung on Wednesday took the wraps off of its latest foldable smartphones during its Unpacked event in Paris, France. The Google (GOOG, GOOGL) Android-powered phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, are a key differentiator for Samsung in its long-running battle with Apple (AAPL) for global smartphone supremacy.
Samsung, like Apple, is making its generative AI offerings a major selling point for both of the phones. Starting at $1,099 for the Z Flip 6 and $1,899 for the Z Fold 6, both phones are $100 more expensive than their predecessors, putting them squarely in the premium smartphone category. To put that into perspective, Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro starts at $999, while its larger Pro Max starts at $1,199. Samsung’s own S24 and S24+ start at $799 and $999, respectively. Its high-end S24 Ultra costs $1,299.
Samsung is marketing its Flip 6 and Fold 6 as more than just foldable phones. It’s positioning them as powerful generative AI-capable devices thanks to its Galaxy AI platform. The software, which Samsung debuted alongside its S24 lineup earlier this year, provides a host of generative AI features ranging from real-time translation and conversation capabilities to photo editing tools and productivity options.
According to the company, artificial intelligence is proving rather popular among Samsung customers. The tech giant says 77% of S24 users access its AI features every week, with Google’s Circle to Search and Samsung’s Edit Suggestions among the most popular. Circle to Search allows you to capture a photo of an object or text and then search for it via the web or translate it. Edit Suggestions, as the name implies, provides generative AI text suggestions while writing text messages and emails.
Samsung says the Fold 6 and Flip 6’s unique designs make them especially helpful when using Galaxy AI features. A new conversation feature in the Interpreter app allows you to chat with another person in different languages by automatically listening to and displaying your words on the phones’ cover screens and main screens.
Say you’re chatting with someone who only speaks French, and you only speak English. You can fold the Fold 6 so that it’s resting on the table like a mini laptop or fold the Flip 6 as if it were a makeup compact. The conversation feature will then display what your friend says on the main screen and what you say on the outside screen. The idea is to allow you to have a seamless conversation in real time. Google has a similar feature on its Pixel Fold foldable smartphone.
Both phones also come loaded with Google’s Gemini app, which is powered by the search company’s own AI models. You can call up Gemini by swiping on the corner of the screen or saying, “Hey, Google.” Gemini provides a host of options including getting help brainstorming ideas for things like work projects, trip itineraries, finding location information in Google Maps and more.
As for productivity, in addition to Edit Suggestions, Galaxy AI now includes a new PDF translation feature for the Samsung Notes app that will, true to its name, translate your PDFs on your phone while retaining the document’s layout. Chances are you’ve tried to access a PDF and translate it in the past only to have the formatting go out the window, making it difficult to read. PDF translations should help eliminate that.
From a design perspective, the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 are largely unchanged from last year’s Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5, save for a few nips and tucks. The Z Fold 6, for instance, gets a slightly larger 6.3-inch cover screen to make it feel more like a standard rectangular smartphone when closed. Considering that was one of my gripes with the phone, the larger display real estate should prove to be a welcome change, even if it’s just a 0.1-inch increase.
The Z Flip gets the same main camera as the company’s flagship S24 and a new ultra-wide-angle camera. The phone’s battery is also the same size as the one found in the S24, which according to Samsung, means users will no longer have to sacrifice overall capabilities when choosing the Flip over its mainline flagship.
The Fold, meanwhile, gets a 50-megapixel main camera, a new 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 12MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and up to 30x digitally enhanced zoom.
Both the Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 come equipped with Qualcomm’s (QCOM) Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and 12GB of memory. The Flip also gets 256GB and 512GB of storage, while the Fold gets 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB of storage.
Samsung’s foldables aren’t the only ones on the market. Chinese smartphone makers like Huawei and Xiaomi, as well as Motorola, also offer their own foldable devices. Still, Samsung’s Galaxy AI platform could help ensure it remains top of mind among consumers looking for foldables.
Email Daniel Howley at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
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