Samsung Electronics has indicated it could eventually bring a more affordable foldable smartphone under its Fan Edition (FE) portfolio, but only when the category matures enough to justify such a move.
The comments suggest Samsung is keeping its options open even as competition in foldables is expected to intensify over the next few years. While the company currently dominates the premium foldable segment, cheaper models from Chinese rivals could eventually push foldables closer to mainstream price points.
Responding to a question at a media roundtable on the sidelines of the Galaxy Z Fold8 Series launch on whether Samsung could introduce a foldable priced below the US$1,000 mark to target consumers in India’s Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, JB Park, President and CEO of Samsung Southwest Asia stopped short of confirming any product plans but acknowledged the possibility.
“We have the Fan Edition (FE) for our S-series devices, which helps us make the flagship smartphone more affordable for those consumers who are on a budget. It’s our 8th generation of Z-series and we have not come up with the FE series,” Park said.
He added that Samsung’s product roadmap remains closely tied to consumer demand and broader industry trends.
“We are very adaptive based on the feedback of our consumers. In the coming years, when foldables will be democratised and more brands will come in, and if there is a requirement for us to introduce a FE product (a more affordable foldable), I think that’s a possibility that can happen but it’s all about the industry and how the consumers respond to the requirements.”
What “FE” actually means
The Fan Edition badge has become one of Samsung’s more effective pricing tools and growth driver since it was introduced with the Galaxy S20 FE in 2020, a device built to salvage flagship-tier sales after COVID-19 hollowed out the smartphone market. The formula has stayed consistent since: take a recent flagship, swap in a previous-generation chipset, trim the camera array and battery capacity, and shave anywhere from $150 to $300 off the price – enough to undercut the standard S-series without gutting the experience. The Galaxy S25 FE, for instance, launched roughly eight months after the standard S25 with a bigger battery and display but a step down in silicon, landing $150 below its sibling. Samsung later widened the strategy into tablets and earbuds, treating “FE” less as a single product than a permanent, lower rung on its pricing ladder.
That ladder has never extended into foldables. Samsung’s Z Fold and Z Flip devices remain priced well north of $1,000 in every major market, including India, where the Galaxy Z Fold7 launched at roughly ₹1,74,999 (about $2,000) before discounting pulled street prices closer to ₹1,60,000. Even the compact Z Flip line, Samsung’s traditional entry point into folding phones, has not dipped meaningfully below the ₹1,00,000 mark in years.
Why the sub-$1,000 line matters in India
The question put to Park reflects a specific reality of the Indian smartphone market: premium devices sell overwhelmingly in metro India, while tier-2 and tier-3 cities – smaller urban centers that now account for a majority of the country’s smartphone shipments – are far more price-sensitive and finance-dependent. A foldable priced like a Fold7 or Flip7 is, for most of that base, aspirational rather than attainable, EMI plans notwithstanding.
Rivals have already tested how far foldable prices can fall. Motorola’s original Clamshell Razr broke the $1,000 barrier at $699 in 2023, a moment widely read at the time as the start of foldables going mainstream. Since then, however, pricing in India has drifted the other way: Motorola’s newer Razr Fold launched locally this year at ₹1,49,999, roughly in line with Samsung’s own Fold pricing rather than undercutting it. Chinese and other challenger brands have periodically pushed cheaper flip-style foldables into the market, but a genuinely sub-$1,000, book-style foldable with flagship-adjacent specifications still does not exist at meaningful scale in India.
Foldables remain expensive to build
Unlike conventional smartphones, foldables continue to rely on costly components, including flexible OLED panels, ultra-thin glass, complex hinge mechanisms and specialised mechanical engineering. These factors have kept prices well above those of traditional premium smartphones despite eight generations of refinement.
Samsung has steadily reduced the weight and thickness of its foldables while improving durability, but manufacturing costs remain significantly higher than those of slab smartphones.
An FE version of a foldable would therefore require Samsung to identify meaningful cost reductions without compromising the user experience that defines the category.
We are of the opinion that wider adoption of foldables will depend on component costs falling, manufacturing volumes increasing and supply chains maturing. As more brands enter the segment and competition increases, those conditions could gradually emerge.
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A cautious, demand-led approach
Park’s answer suggests Samsung is watching that gap rather than rushing to fill it. He tied any future affordable foldable to two conditions: broader “democratization” of foldable technology across the industry, and clearer signals from consumers that they want it. That is consistent with how Samsung has talked about Galaxy AI pricing and memory-cost absorption elsewhere in the same conversation – a company positioning itself as responsive to market signals rather than a first mover on price cuts, even as competitors use aggressive pricing to build share in India’s crowded mid-tier.
For now, the FE badge remains an S-series tool, not a Z-series one. Whether that changes may depend less on Samsung’s engineering – which has already proven it can strip cost out of a flagship without gutting the experience – than on how much further foldables need to fall before tier-2 and tier-3 India start buying them the way they already buy Fan Edition phones.
Author: Sandeep Budki
Source: The Mobile Indian
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
