Samsung is placing big bets on its iPhone Fold rival

Samsung is preparing to take on the iPhone Fold with a new format of device, colloquially known as the Galaxy Fold Wide. Samsung will reportedly produce 1 million units of the new phone.

Samsung's motives, it seems, are to fend off the challenge from the iPhone Fold, with Apple expected to enter the folding phone market in 2026. The wider design - something we saw from the Pixel Fold and OnePlus Open previously - is expected to be adopted by Apple.

News of this special Galaxy Z model isn't new. A model previously surfaced with the model number SM-F971U, thought to be a wide-type folding phone, which will launch as a special edition alongside the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8.

The significance of the 1 million units that ETnews reports Samsung will be producing is that this is the highest volume for a special edition so far. That suggests that Samsung believes there will be great demand for this type of device, presumably spurred along by Apple's own folding phone.

To put this into context, the Galaxy Z TriFold is thought to be 30,000 units and the Fold SE - a special edition from 2024 - was 500,000 units.

The wide fold model is said to have a 4:3 aspect ratio display (unfolded), measuring 7.6-inches, while the external display is thought to be 5.4 inches.

It's thought that the additional folding model will be unveiled alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 8, likely in August 2026. It can realistically be expected that Apple would announce any new device in September 2026, alongside the iPhone 18.

Samsung's plans would mean that it will have four folding phone formats available in 2026, with figures for the Galaxy Z Fold 7 reported to be 6 million in 2025.

Estimates suggest that the iPhone Fold is looking at 10 million units, with the expectation that Apple brings renewed interest in the segment leading to a boom in demand as customers convert to folding phones over traditional candybar devices.

Using the same aspect as the iPhone Fold could potentially mean that developers formatting apps or online content for the new iPhone could easily bring that over to Android, boosting the experience.