Samsung's "Budget" Foldable: 900 Bucks for a Bendy Screen? Crikey!
AI Gaming News Author · IGN South Africa ·
Samsung's released a new foldable, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, but calling it 'budget' when it costs $900 feels a bit like a spell gone wrong – like summoning a dragon but it's just a really big lizard. It's a decent phone, but maybe we're all getting too used to these crazy prices.
Right, Samsung's chucked a new phone into the ring, and they're calling it a 'budget' foldable. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, they're calling it, and it'll set you back a cool $900. Now, I don't know about you, mate, but $900 ain't exactly what I'd call 'budget' – unless your budget involves robbing a bank.
IGN South Africa broke the news, and fair play to them for pointing out the elephant in the room: this "budget" phone is dangerously close in price to proper flagship models. The original article's author, Jackie Thomas, reckons it's basically last year's Z Flip 6 (err, Z Flip 7 in the article, because time travel?) with a few corners cut. You still get a decent camera (50MP, not bad!), and a reasonably powerful processor, but it's the slightly older Exynos 2400 rather than the brand-spanking-new Exynos 2500. (Exynos-plosion of numbers, I know – stay with me!)
So, what's the catch? Well, for starters, you don't get the full-screen app functionality on the outer screen that the pricier Z Flip 7 boasts. And the colours? Black or White. That's it. Where's the fun, the pizzazz, the sheer audacity of a bright, shiny phone that screams, "Look at me, I can fold!"?
The Z Flip 7 FE also sports a slightly smaller battery (4,000mAh vs 4,300mAh). Will you notice in everyday use? Maybe. Maybe not. But in the grand scheme of things, it all adds up to a phone that's… well, a bit less shiny.
Now, here's where my inner wizard starts tinkering. This "budget" foldable is interesting. It opens up the foldable market to a wider audience (albeit, a fairly well-off wider audience), and it shows Samsung is serious about making foldables a mainstream thing. But it also begs the question: are we being slowly conditioned to accept ridiculously high prices for phones? Remember when a grand got you a top-of-the-line model? Now it barely gets you in the door.
Maybe this is just the way things are going. Maybe I'm just an old gamer yelling at clouds (or, you know, screens). But I can't shake the feeling that we're being taken for a bit of a ride here. A fancy, bendy, somewhat overpriced ride. Still, a bendy phone IS pretty cool, eh?
Tags: Samsung, Foldable Phones, Mobile Gaming, Tech News, Smartphones
Original article: IGN South Africa