Samsung’s wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 handset has gone over so well that the company is planning on going even wider for next year’s phones and could even launch five foldable phones on total.
According to new reporting from ET News in Samsung’s South Korean homeland, the tech giant may go beyond the 4:3 aspect ratio for the recent Galaxy Z Fold 8 and opt for a phone that’s more adept for viewing video.
It could mean we’d get a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio on a Galaxy Z Fold 9 handset that would get rid of the horizontal letterboxing we see when viewing videos on the Z Fold 8.
The report quotes an industry official as saying that another wide Fold is on the way and while no specifications have been confirmed “it will be a plan to make it a screen ratio optimised for viewing video.”
That means, the report says, that along with the 4:3 foldable, the widescreen version, the next Z Fold Ultra with the original aspect ratio and, the Galaxy Z Fold Flip and return of the Trifold. Hopefully the latter will be available in greater numbers in more places this year.
The report says the new Z Fold 8 is dominating the pre-orders for the new series, comprising 70% of the record 1.44m pre-orders Samsung has racked up for this series. The report says it’s 39% up on the previous record for foldables.
“It is interpreted that Samsung Electronics is inspired by this reaction and is developing another wide model,” the report says (translated). “The purpose is to target the various tastes of consumers by choosing the form factor diversification of wide fold as a card that will increase the growth rate of foldable phones that have grown slowly.”
Our reviewer said the new Fold 8 was the “first of a new breed of book-style foldable that excels at entertainment” but cautioned that loads of third party apps weren’t optimised for the form factor yet.
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