Samsung's next-gen foldables tipped for a premium hinge upgrade – bar one

Samsung will reportedly be making a change to it’s forthcoming folding phones, switching to titanium for the hinges.

We’ve previously reported that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 could be substantially slimmer, shedding a few millimetres to make it one of the thinnest folding phones around. To do this, Samsung is going to switch to titanium for the hinge material, according to The Elec.

Specifically, the backplate of the hinge is going to switch to titanium because of its slim and light properties. The backplate is the section of the hinge that provides structure to the folding part of the display.

The change is expected for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but it’s also said to be a feature of the new tri-fold Galaxy G Fold that’s expected to be launched in 2025 too.

According to the source, the first time that Samsung made this move was on the Galaxy Z Fold SE, although that device was limited to Korea only. One other feature of the Z Fold SE was that it didn’t support the S Pen. Removing the digitiser could also play a part in making the forthcoming foldables thinner.

If the Z Fold 7 and the G Fold do drop the current S Pen, I might signal a change for Samsung and a move to a powered S Pen instead. That would allow S Pen support, but slightly different to the previous arrangement.

Back to the hinge changes and it’s not expected that the Z Flip 7 will get the titanium backplate. That’s because this model is not expected to get slimmer, so will likely launch with a design much the same as it currently offers.

It’s worth nothing that Motorola used titanium in the new Razr models, so this is far from unique.

When will the Galaxy Z Fold 7 launch?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is expected to be announced at a Galaxy Unpacked event in early July. That event has not yet been confirmed, but we’re expecting to see the Z Fold 7 and the Z Flip 7 unveiled.

It’s expected that Samsung’s tri-fold device could also be teased, but not fully launched at that time, while updated Galaxy Watch models are also expected.

What’s currently not known in whether Samsung will also take the opportunity to update us on progress with Project Moohan, its VR headset. We could even find out more during the Google I/O keynote today.