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Samsung has been king of the foldable phone business for so long that it should be terrified at the prospect of getting some serious competition. The impending release of the iPhone Fold (or iPhone Ultra if you prefer) could be the thing that finally topples Samsung from its throne. The Korean company looks to be pulling out all the stops to make sure that doesn't happen.
That's been particularly obvious from the latest batch of Z Fold 8 rumors, including one from prolific Samsung leaker Ice Universe. They claim Samsung has been working on reducing the crease of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series — to the point where it's "as impressive as that of the OPPO Find N6."
Attacking the iPhone Fold where it hurts
The display crease has reportedly been a real sticking point for Apple and the iPhone Fold. It's been claimed that Apple intends to use the crease-free display as one of the iPhone Fold's key selling points, in an attempt to make up for the fact that it's pretty late to jump on the foldable bandwagon.
The Oppo Find N6 doesn't eliminate the crease, but the consensus is that it gets pretty darn close. If Samsung has managed to reach the same level, then it's going to be quite the achievement.
The only question is whether it will be on par with Apple, since the company is reportedly trying to outdo all other foldable phones in crease elimination. But the closer Samsung gets, the less impressive Apple's achievement will seem — especially since the Z Fold 8 series is arriving first.
Interestingly, rumor has it that Samsung Display is the company that developed the crease-free display for the iPhone Fold. However, it's unlikely that the iPhone display will be available for other phone companies, least of all Samsung.
Not only is the design likely a collaboration between Samsung and Apple engineers, but there will also be legal agreements in place to prevent the likely unique iPhone design from being utilized on other phones — especially future Galaxy Z Fold models.
An Apple-like design is coming
But there's more to the Z Fold 8 series than a little bit less display crease. Samsung's also releasing a second design at some point this year, with a shorter, passport-like look that is remarkably similar to the leaked iPhone Fold design.
Samsung experimenting with new looks and special edition models is nothing new, though. We already saw the release of the Galaxy Z TriFold late last year, and despite the fact that it was expensive and didn't stay in production for long, the response to the larger-screen foldable was positive. Likewise, we had the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, which formed the basis of upgrades that eventually landed on the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
That said, the fact that Samsung is releasing something so similar to the iPhone Fold — even if it isn't identical — doesn't feel like a coincidence.
If I were a betting man, I'd say that this was a way to gauge just how much more popular Apple's shorter and wider foldable design might be. It's important to know whether the iPhone Fold's hypothetical success is because of the design, the fact it's the only foldable iPhone, or some combination of the two.
What's in a name?
It's also been rumored that Samsung is renaming the eighth generation foldable "Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra," despite the fact that it's a follow-up to the non-Ultra Galaxy Z Fold 7. As for the name Z Fold 8, that is apparently being bestowed upon the new wider design, which everyone has been calling the Galaxy Z Fold Wide up until now.
Leaker Ice Universe claims that this decision has only been made recently. While Samsung has been using Ultra branding on various phones for decades, my cynical mind thinks it's a bizarre attempt to capitalize on Apple's first foldable. Since Apple's first foldable phone may be called iPhone Ultra, I imagine Samsung must have wondered why it hasn't done that yet.
After all, Ultra has been a staple part of the Galaxy S series for at least six generations, and there's no better way to declare that a certain phone is the best than adding a descriptive term to the name.
It's unlikely that Samsung will end its apparent campaign to oust the iPhone Fold before it even releases, but there are still plenty of things we don't know about both the Galaxy Z Fold 8/Ultra and the Z Fold Wide.
But since the phones are rumored to be coming at a Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22, we don't have long to wait to see what Samsung has in store for foldable phone fans — and what it thinks will be able to fight back against iPhone Fold. Let me know what you're hoping to see from Samsung in the comments below.
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