Samsung Just Announced First 'Budget' Foldable – And It's $900

At its summertime Unpacked event, Samsung announced its archetypal "budget" foldable smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip FE, for a terms that doesn't precisely shriek "budget" to astir people.

This phone, which costs $899.99, seems mostly the aforesaid arsenic the Galaxy Z Flip 6 I reviewed past year, which inactive costs $1,100. Samsung hasn't revealed overmuch astir the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, but 1 happening we bash cognize is that it doesn't enactment the aforesaid full-screen apps connected the smaller extracurricular surface that the full-fat Z Flip 7 does.

If you privation to drawback this allegedly fund smartphone, the Z Flip 7 FE starts astatine $899 for a 128GB option, and jumps to immoderate higher terms for the 256GB version. The telephone comes successful 2 colorways, Black and White, truthful you besides don't get the vivid colors that makes the regular Z Flip 7 truthful appealing.

A Budget Foldable?

With the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 starting astatine $1,099.99, the Z Flip 7 FE astatine $899 is surely a little price, but I don't cognize that I'd telephone a "budget" device. We've fundamentally been surviving successful a satellite of $1,000-plus smartphones for astir a decade, since the iPhone X came to store shelves successful 2017.

Foldables are besides benignant of successful their ain league astatine this point. Yeah, the Z Flip 7 starts astatine $1,099, but the flagship Z Fold 7, besides announced astatine Unpacked, starts astatine $1,999.99. That benignant of terms tag has mislaid immoderate of its daze worth astatine this point, but it inactive nevertheless stings. It's not surprising, then, that Samsung isn't adjacent pretending to motorboat a fund mentation of that phone.

From what I've seen, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE mightiness beryllium the mentation of the telephone to get, particularly if you're going to enactment a lawsuit connected your instrumentality anyways. You inactive get a 50MP camera, on with an almost-as-powerful chipset, adjacent if the surface is simply a small smaller than the main device.

Unlike the much pricey Z Flip 7, which is powered by the caller Exynos 2500, the Z Flip 7 FE features the Exynos 2400. This is inactive a 10-core CPU, but it's built connected a chunkier 4nm process, alternatively of the 2500's 3nm process. In mundane workloads, this shouldn't marque excessively overmuch of a difference, but it could pb to somewhat worse ratio and artillery life, particularly with its somewhat smaller 4,000mAh artillery (the Z Flip 7 has a 4,300mAh battery).

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE does look similar a large entry-level foldable, but a "budget" instrumentality with a $900 terms tag conscionable rubs maine the incorrect way. It seems similar conscionable yesterday that the iPhone X came retired and made everything much expensive, and portion we're mostly each numb to $1,000 flagships by now, I don't deliberation I'm acceptable for entry-level devices to outgo this much. But with everything getting much costly this year, that mightiness beryllium thing I conscionable person to larn to get utilized to.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor astatine IGN and the PC components queen. You tin travel her @Jackiecobra