Samsung is rumored to be preparing a wider Galaxy Z Fold phone for this year’s foldable launch. By “wide,” we simply mean that it’ll look closer to the original Pixel Fold than the current Galaxy Z Fold 7. Instead of a candybar-style device that unfolds into a square tablet, it would start as a wider device in phone form before unfolding into a very wide tablet.
This week, early builds of Samsung’s upcoming One UI 9 found their way on the internet and people started digging through the files. Within those files, animations of a foldable with a much wider profile were spotted and shared. You can see one of those animations below.
You’ll notice that it showcases a wider cover display and tells you to swipe up to access widgets or the home screen. From there, the device opens into its wide tablet form, where you can see content taking up a potentially massive tablet. Well, since we don’t know dimensions, that’s pure speculation, as Samsung could always give us a more compact form factor that is simply a wider shape when unfoldable.
And if you are thinking this is all nothing, I’ll just say that Samsung doesn’t typically include animations like this within their software if it doesn’t represent a device on some level. We’ve seen these One UI animations surface for previous devices and they are often a glimpse into the future.
Nothing else is really available here other than whatever we can see within this animation, but it is a good sign that Samsung is working on a new form factor for the Galaxy Z Fold line-up. I cannot wait to see where this goes.
Thoughts?
I actually find this disappointing that they're making two variants.
The Fold7 is just about perfect. Add 2-3mm width to it and it would be perfect.
Instead, seems now we'll have to chose between tall/narrow or short/wide.
Obviously have to wait and see, but I'm not encouraged.
The PF was the perfect size. And it's kind of interesting that Apple is supposedly bringing a passport size folding phone to market this year.
As a Fold 6 and previous fold 4 owner I'm all in on wide or i might go back to the S series. When unfolded and i watch video it feels like i have almost as much empty black bar space as video space. I don't need it to be shorter, just wider, but if it isn't a tad wider I'm going back to the bar style. My second problem is how cramped typing is on the narrow front keyboard.
This will be perfect for my wife. The regular fold 8 for me