It’s Official: Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a Hit
After years of slowly stalling sales and amid predictions that the trend would continue, Samsung's latest foldables are a bona fide hit. While both the Flip and Fold are selling better than last year, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is proving to be the biggest success, smashing pre-order records in multiple regions. The new phone's popularity could be a sign that foldable technology is officially going mainstream.
Back on the 22nd, it was reported that in South Korea, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Z Flip 7 had already received over 1.04 million pre-orders. This number surpassed the previous records held by the Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5. It’s an even larger increase over last year’s models which only managed to secure 910K pre-orders. Notably, this is the first time a Fold model has outsold a Flip model in pre-orders in the region, with the Z Fold 7 accounting for 60% of all sales. Strong sales have also been reported in India and Europe, which has seen 50% higher sales compared to last year.
The enthusiasm for the phone is also strong in the United States. Samsung has announced that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is now the most pre-ordered Galaxy Fold in US history. When combined with the Galaxy Z Flip 7, the new devices have seen a more than 25% increase in pre-orders compared to their predecessors. US carriers are reporting an even larger spike, with a 60% jump in pre-orders, likely fueled by attractive promotions and trade-in offers. Since its general release, the Z Fold 7 has continued to be in high demand, with orders outpacing the Z Fold 6 by almost 50% since July 25.
According to Samsung’s Senior Vice President of Mobile Product Management, “Foldables have reached an inflection point as they are becoming a mainstream choice for users.. Now on our seventh generation, we’ve addressed consumer feedback year after year and have arrived at the kind of experience you can’t get on any other device. When people go hands-on with a Z series device, they’re hooked — and now it’s all coming together with record-breaking numbers.”
As a fan of colorful phones, it’s also worth mentioning that the Blue Shadow model of the Fold 7 has apparently made up something like half of all sales and the vibrant Coralred Flip 7 has accounted for around 25% of its sales. Are you watching, other OEMs? We want fun colors!
One interesting angle to this is the fact that we’ve heard nothing about sales figures for the cheaper FE model of the Flip 7. As consumers, we tend to make assumptions like “the cheaper model will sell better,” but our intuitions are often wrong. It’s possible that the market for foldables simply is premium and a cheaper version will get overlooked. The removal of the S Pen is a similar in a way. Many commenters have expressed that they won’t buy the Fold 7 without it, but it appears obvious now that the contingent Samsung lost was more than made up for by who they gained.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7's early success is undeniable. But the real question is what comes next. Have you pre-ordered one of Samsung's new foldables? Do you think this is a true turning point for the foldable phone market or just a momentary spike in sales? Will the success of more vibrant colors like Blue Shador and Coralre inspire other OEMs to lean into brighter colors? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!