If there were any questions as to whether or not consumers would embrace foldable phones, we seem to have an answer — at least when it comes to Samsung fans.
Accounting for both the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and the Fold 5, Samsung’s new foldable phones are breaking preorder records. In South Korea alone, the home of Samsung, more than 1 million pre-orders (1,020,000 to be exact) were placed for the new devices.
Also: The 5 best foldable phones right now
This is a bit surprising because as a whole, Samsung’s newest generation of phones wasn’t breaking a lot of new ground over last year’s versions. They’re a little thinner, and bring a few new additions like the Flip 5’s “Flex Window,” but nothing revolutionary.
Nevertheless, while folding smartphones have seemed fairly niche to this point, it finally seems customers are on board.
The 1.02 million pre-orders are admittedly only a slight increase over the 970,000 preorders in the same time for the Flip 4 and Fold 4, but an increase is still good news no matter how small.
Numbers from the rest of the world aren’t available at the moment, but Samsung said at its Unpacked event that foldables account for about 20% of its smartphone sales around the world.
Review: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5: Three features I love (and two that I still wish for)
Perhaps the biggest takeaway though is not just the increase in pre-orders, but the fact that the Flip 5 makes up 70% of those orders — an increase from the 60% the Z Flip 4 accounted for. The Flip has always been Samsung’s most popular foldable device, but the gap is widening.
Are folding phones going to overtake traditional ones anytime soon? Probably not. Of course, success for Samsung will cause other manufacturers to take notice (we’re looking at you, Google Fold). While they’re likely never going to be the most popular option, you’ll most certainly start seeing a whole lot more of them.
Samsung Unpacked
