In an email to Samsung device users, the company has a selection of quotes from YouTuber Parker Burton, who has seemingly used the device ahead of launch. “This is wildly thin,” Burton is quoted saying in the promotional email. Continuing “When you have this thing folded, it’s going to feel just like your regular phone.”
It’s not uncommon for smartphone manufacturers to tease aspects of their phones ahead of launch to build hype. Samsung, in particular, has been increasingly loose with information about its products before they’re officially announced. But the Korean company has taken this to another level with the Fold 7.
We have already seen a silhouette of the device from all angles via Samsung’s press team — confirming how slim the phone is — with the names of the devices included in the press image file. The company has also published press releases outlining what upgrades to expect from the Fold 7.
“For years, Samsung has listened to users asking for bigger screens, better cameras, and new ways to connect and create.” One release read, hinting that the Fold 7 will have an improved camera and a bigger screen. The latter was confirmed to me by a Samsung executive earlier this month.
All of this tells me that Samsung sees the Fold 7 as a serious shift from what has come before. A reset, if you will, of the Fold series. The same criticisms pop up after every Fold launch. There’s the tall, unusual, aspect ratio on its front screen, the average camera output (again, for a phone that costs as much as a good laptop), and the chunkiness. Samsung sees the new device as an answer to all of that and, as such, making it clear that the Fold 7 allays all of those fears.
I’m sure the threat of companies that have made strides in slimming down their foldable phones, adding top-end cameras and bigger screens from the likes of Oppo, OnePlus and Google lit a fire under Samsung to make these design changes. We will have to see if the Fold 7 measures up to the competition and provides the reset the series clearly needs.
