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It was a difficult delivery, no doubt, but her first year of life is going almost even worse. The folding smartphone , considered until a few months as the next evolutionary leap in mobile telephony, have become an almost-product in a year in which the advances of the mid - range mobile phone seem to have much impact on consumers .

Samsung announced today at its completely virtual Unpacked 2020 event, the second generation of what can undoubtedly be considered the forerunner of these phones, the Galaxy Z Fold .

The evolution against the initial model is remarkable. The Z Fold 2 features a much more careful and attractive industrial design . The body is thinner and the gap left in the spine when folded is much smaller. The phone has a 6.2-inch screen on the outside and a 7.6-inch screen on the inside (with different formats).

Samsung has designed a new screen protector layer that feels more like the glass of conventional smartphones and the phone's hinge has been redesigned to offer better strength and durability. He is an engineering prodigy.

But even the Korean company, undoubtedly the one that has made the most noise with this type of phone, seems to have lost some of the initial enthusiasm. Although there was talk of innovation and the advantages of the format, Samsung did not give concrete sales figures for the previous models and dedicated the bulk of the conference to what will possibly be a much more profitable phone for its accounts, the Note 20.

In his initial speech, TM Roh, president of Samsung's mobile division, did not even mention it, highlighting the smart watch, headphones and tablets along with the Note 20 as the focus of the event. The Fold 2 was left as a final surprise, presented by the famous Korean k-pop group BTS, and will not be available for reservation until September 1, the day that Samsung will also give more details about the device.

Declining market

It is, in a way, a logical reaction. These types of phones are still too expensive, even in a world where high-end phones have long exceeded three figures on their price tag. They are more a demonstration of what a company's R&D department is capable of achieving than a product that fits most consumers.

The proposition was already complex in the pre-COVID-19 world, but the pandemic has further complicated this scenario . IDC points out that the mobile telephony market has contracted around 16% in the second quarter of the year and is a contraction that mainly affects the high-end of telephony. "Almost 30% of consumers plan to spend less this year on mobile telephony due to the pandemic," added analysts at Counterpoint Research.

Samsung, which launched its flagship Galaxy S20 phones just as quarantine periods began, has been one of the companies most affected by this decline . The number of phones sold by the company has fallen by about 28.9% compared to the previous year, although the good performance of other divisions of the company has managed to alleviate the situation somewhat.

Rugged takeoff

The Fold had, in any case, a difficult start. Problems with the design of the first units caused many users to inadvertently damage the folding screen, which included a sheet very similar to a temporary protector that, however, should not be removed.

Samsung was quick to tweak the design and make it less confusing, but these initial problems, combined with the few apps that took advantage of the screen, slowed sales down quite a bit. Ex-Samsung President DJ Koh confirmed that in 2019 only 400,000 to 500,000 units of the phone were sold.

In February, the company launched the Galaxy Z Flip, a folding phone with a more compact format and a screen that folded lengthwise rather than widthwise.

The reception of this terminal was much more positive and Samsung could have sold more than half a million units of it, even with the pandemic, but it is still a product for a relatively small market niche. Next week the company will be able to sell the version compatible with 5G networks.

The competition situation is not much better. Motorola launched the Motorola Razr in December, relying on nostalgia around one of its most iconic designs, but initial impressions of the phone were not very positive. Despite its high price, it did not offer competitive specifications.

Huawei also put a folding mobile on the market in February, the Mate XS, but its high price (2,500 euros) added to the restrictions of the pandemic, have taken its toll on adoption.

One of the advantages of these phones is that they put a larger screen in a portable format, blurring the boundaries between a tablet and a phone. But it is, ironically, also his main weakness at the moment. In a world where almost everyone is working from home and traveling less, this feature is not as useful.

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