Why Samsung’s passport-style foldable phone matters for the smartphone industry

Samsung is no stranger to foldable phones. It was one of the first companies to launch a foldable smartphone back in 2019 and has since expanded its lineup into two form factors: the book-style Galaxy Z Fold and the clamshell-style Galaxy Z Flip.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5. (Express Photo)

Earlier this year, the company briefly experimented with a $3,000 tri-fold design that unfolded into a tablet-sized device thanks to its two-fold design, but wound down sales of the device less than two months after its launch. Samsung, however, seems willing to experiment with a new wider foldable phone, likely to be called the Galaxy Z Fold 8.

It’s not the first wide phone. Microsoft released the Surface Duo in 2020, but it was made up of two separate screens rather than a single folding display. Long before that, BlackBerry launched a model called the Passport, which, as the name suggested, closely matched the shape and size of a paper passport. The 2014 phone featured a QWERTY keyboard below the display and did not fold. This year, however, Huawei unveiled the Pura X Max, a wide-screen foldable phone that is already available to buy – but only in China.

The shift to wide foldables 

Samsung may not be the first company to launch a wide foldable phone, but it could be the one that makes a passport-shaped smartphone with flexible screen mainstream in major markets, including the US, the UK, and India.

While Huawei’s Pura X Max has a squat shape due to its width when closed (it has a 5.4-inch cover display that opens up to a 7.7-inch internal screen), a similar design with a shorter and wider profile is expected from the Galaxy Z Fold 8, or whatever its marketing name may be.

The traditional book-style foldable smartphones that many brands offer today behave like conventional phones. (Image: Huawei)

Although Samsung may be introducing a wide foldable phone, it isn’t abandoning a book-style folding phone yet. “The passport-style [phone] that Samsung is introducing addresses that compromise directly, and therefore, is targeted to consumers rather than professional users. Its aspect ratio is better matched to video and content consumption, and unfolded it offers a larger, more tablet-like canvas. However, when closed, it remains an uncommon format that is awkward to carry in a pocket, and typing takes up most of the available screen, so it is less practical than a standard smartphone in its folded state,” Francisco Jeronimo, Vice President of Client Devices at the market research firm IDC, told indianexpress.com.

The traditional book-style foldable smartphones that many brands offer today behave like conventional phones when closed and provide a familiar experience that matches a slab-style phone. Their proportions, however, are less well suited for watching videos and consuming content, so a larger screen does not automatically translate into a better viewing experience. The wider aspect ratio on a folding phone gives consumers another choice and is perhaps why Samsung is adding a widescreen variant alongside a book-style option, likely to be called the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

“The book style leans towards professional and productivity users who value a familiar closed experience, while the passport style appeals to those who prioritise content and viewing,” added Jeronimo. “I don’t think the market will converge on one winner. Buyers will select based on their primary use case, and Samsung is adding a new format to prepare for that divergence rather than assuming that a single form factor will dominate.”

It remains to be seen how well wider foldables will be received by consumers, but with Huawei and Samsung strongly supporting the passport-style phone design, the shift toward wider foldables appears to be here to stay, with more brands expected to follow the trend with their devices later this year. Curiously, Samsung’s wide foldable is launching weeks ahead of the Apple iPhone Fold (or iPhone Ultra, as it is being called on the internet), which may also adopt a wider foldable design. This could mean the outer screen feels more like a compact iPhone, while the unfolded display offers a wider experience closer to an iPad mini-style workspace.

Apple may use Samsung’s new display tech to make its foldable phone crease free. (Image Credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

While phone brands begin to move toward wider foldables, insiders say the passport-style shape may become a standard for foldable devices after Samsung and Apple launch their devices. These wider foldables could increase consumer interest in foldables – after all, wider foldables are designed for content consumption.

Jeronimo may be right in his observation. Open them up, and you get a 4:3 screen that feels just right for reading, browsing, or watching videos. This screen ratio is well suited for media because videos do not have huge black bars, and everything looks more natural. That is something missing from book-style foldables, which, since their beginning, have been aimed primarily at business users and enthusiasts.

For content consumption, a 4:3 aspect ratio works really well, while the near-square shape of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 can feel bigger and more visually appealing. If Samsung’s foldable sticks to a 4:3-like experience and features thinner internal bezels, it could be an immediate success.

Both Samsung and Apple believe in the wide foldable trend. But, as experts say, Samsung’s wide foldable phone is not about leading the market; it is a calculated move to reduce Apple’s first-mover advantage. As Jeronimo mentioned, the design has a few trade offs. A wider design improves the inner screen experience but could also make the phone bulkier and harder to use one-handed.

A higher smartphone ASP and a shift toward the ultra-premium segment

Foldable smartphones may seem like a small segment, but brands like Samsung are doing higher sales. And because foldable phones are priced at the higher end, they contribute to a higher average selling price (ASP), a metric well known to anyone who tracks the smartphone industry.

Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold. (Express Image)

“The Galaxy Z Fold 7 was Samsung’s first fold-device to sell more than three million units through its lifetime and has a strong refresh and upgrade appeal. The flip series, on the other hand, is at an inflection point where shipments have declined every single year since Flip3 in 2021 – which continued into 2025 despite Samsung launching the FE model,” said Runar Bjorhovde, principal analyst at Omdia.

Bjorhovde agrees that while foldables are still a niche category due to their high price tags (the current-generation Galaxy Z Fold 7 is priced at $2,000), there is a segment of consumers willing to pay the premium. He expects 2026 to be a bumper year for foldable growth, with shipments forecast to rise 33 percent to 27.1 million units. Still, the segment is tiny, accounting for just over 18 million units, or 1.5 per cent, of the 1.23 billion smartphones sold globally in 2025.

China currently leads the global foldable adoption, with around 3.3 per cent of smartphone sales in 2025, driven largely by strong competition from brands such as Huawei. Outside China, adoption remains lower, with North America leading at 2.1 per cent and Western Europe at 1.4 per cent. Samsung remains the biggest foldable player, while brands such as Motorola and Honor have focused on specific segments.

According to Bjorhovde, foldables have an average selling price around four times higher than traditional smartphones, while flip-style folding phones are about twice as expensive. However, research and development costs are much higher, and manufacturing foldables adds further expense to these devices. If a foldable phone fails commercially, unsold inventory can result in substantial financial losses, meaning only a few brands can afford to take that risk. “A 50 per cent discount on a $2000 phone is still a very expensive phone,” he says.

AI boom pushes up chip costs

Samsung is holding its product launch event amid a memory chip shortage that has crippled the smartphone market. Chip prices, as well as demand, have increased due to the massive number of AI data centers being built, making it harder for phone brands to procure the memory components used in smartphones. Although Samsung has a solid supply chain, it cannot avoid the surge in memory prices that has reverberated across the consumer electronics industry. Apple, Samsung and others have already hiked prices of its products, because of the rising costs of memory and storage chips.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. (Image: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

“In Q2 2026, most players had DRAM costs that were 4-5 times than in Q2 2025 – it is a very difficult situation to manage. The real impact for these two might hit in H2 when looking at the volume, but it only means that devices that can generate revenue and profit have become even more important – which happens in the premium segment,” said Bjorhovde.

Despite the memory crunch, Samsung isn’t delaying its new devices and is moving ahead with the launch. That alone shows the company’s confidence in its ability to ship the devices on time, even as rivals have slowed their launches over the past few months.

But the real question is whether consumers are ready to splurge on ultra-high-end smartphones, especially at a time when AI is disrupting jobs and many consumers are cutting back on spending on phones due to rising EMIs. Samsung will test its customers’ loyalty, purchasing power, and enthusiasm for innovation when it unveils its first wide-screen foldable next week.

Wedneday’s event in London is expected to reveal the much-anticipated Galaxy Z Fold 8. The high-end model will be an addition to Samsung’s foldable lineup, alongside new smartwatches. A new pair of smart glasses may also be launched.

The glasses are expected to look similar to regular eyewear, based on early prototype leaks, with subtle additions like a camera embedded into the frame. (Image: X/OnLeaks)

In many mature markets such as the US and Europe, where smartphone ownership is close to saturation and many customers are holding on to their existing handsets for longer, the best way to drive faster revenue growth is by charging more for each device rather than relying solely on unit growth.

With renewed competition at the high end of the smartphone market and stiff competition from Apple, Samsung will be banking on customers’ loyalty to its ecosystem of products and services to keep them within the Galaxy ecosystem. However, to preserve its industry-leading profit margins, analysts say a higher-priced foldable lineup may be Samsung’s best bet for gaining an edge over its peers.

“Samsung’s influence in the smartphone industry goes far beyond just its own products – but its own products are also the best showcase of the latest innovations within displays and semiconductors that it can sell to other brands,” said Bjorhovde. “Samsung is expected to be a key supply partner for Apple’s foldable project and there is no doubt that this is the result of a decade of innovation and development inside the foldable segment,” he added.