Samsung is the sales leader in the foldable market. They have the major advantage of global availability and are well-rounded packages: durable hinges, reliable hardware, great optimized software, sorted battery endurance, and good cameras.
I say good and not great because Samsung’s foldables aren’t known for the camera hardware. The excellent software processing covers up the mediocre camera hardware of their foldables, and even that is quickly falling apart against its competitors.
With the Z Fold 6 series, Samsung is expected to bring an Ultra variant into the company’s foldable lineup for the first time. This led to the hopes that the Z Fold 6 and Fold 6 Ultra would finally get major camera hardware upgrades.
Unfortunately, as per renowned tipster Ice Universe (via @UniverseIce on X/Twitter), it has been confirmed that the non-Ultra Z Fold 6 will have the same camera setup as its predecessor, the Z Fold 5.
However, there is a silver lining to this rumor since he implies in a reply that the camera upgrades might be reserved for the Z Fold 6 Ultra.
Hence, this could be Samsung creating differentiation between the standard and the Ultra models of the Z Fold 6 series to push more people to buy the Z Fold 6 Ultra for better cameras. The Galaxy S24 series follows a similar pattern: the S24 Ultra gets the best camera hardware, while it is an afterthought for the S24/S24+.
To summarise, the entire camera setup of the standard Z Fold 6 is expected to be the same as the Z Fold 5, which is as follows.
- Primary rear sensor: 50 MP ISOCELL GN3 sensor with a 1/1.56″ sensor size, f/1.8 aperture, Dual Pixel AF, and OIS mated to a 23 mm lens.
- Ultrawide sensor: 12 MP IMX258 sensor with a 1/3.06″ sensor size, f/2.2 aperture mated to a 13 mm lens. There is no AF on this lens; hence, no macro-shooting is possible.
- Telephoto lens:Â 10 MP S5K3K1 sensor with a 1/3.94″ sensor size, f/2.4 aperture, and OIS mated to a 66 mm lens.
- Selfie camera (cover display): 10 MP IMX374 with a 1/3″ sensor size, f/2.2 aperture, and an apparent 25 mm focal length.
- Selfie camera (inner display):Â 16 MP IMX471 (outputs images at 4 MP) with a 1/3″ sensor size, f/1.8 aperture, and a 25 mm focal length.
We hope that at least the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Ultra has tangible camera hardware improvements to take the fight to competitors like the OnePlus Open, Honor Magic V2, Google Pixel Fold, and Vivo X Fold 3 Pro.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 series is expected to be officially unveiled in July 2024 alongside the Galaxy Watch 7 series, the Galaxy Z Flip 6, and the Galaxy Ring.
