Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim couldn’t be thinner than Chinese foldables

Samsung is working on a Slim model of the Galaxy Z Fold 6. The smartphone is said to be available in just two markets: China and South Korea. Despite struggles, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim could not be thinner than Chinese foldables.

The thickness of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim could be between 11mm and 11.5mm. TheElec reports that the removal of the digitizer reduced the thickness by 0.6mm. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is 12.1mm thick, featuring a 0.6mm digitizer.

The digitizer is a display component that enables stylus input. The Z Fold 6 uses a digitizer of 0.3mm on both sides of the panel. This configuration allows the phone to support input from an S Pen stylus usable in drawing, writing, and Air Actions.

The report says that Samsung is concerned about the reliability of the product. Making it slimmer than 11.5mm would increase quality risks. At the same time, the company needs to reserve upgrades to be applied to the next year’s product.

An industry insider said, “It will be difficult for the Z Fold 6 Slim model to be thinner than the Chinese foldable phones anyway,” adding, “Samsung Electronics needs to leave room for parts to be applied to next year’s foldable phone.”

That said, Samsung’s Slim-branded Fold could be thicker than the Chinese foldable phones released this year. The Korean tech giant is currently finalizing its decision on how much further it will lower the thickness from 11.5mm.

For Samsung foldable, reliability refers to rigorous 200,000-cycle folding tests, water resistance, and dust resistance. Industry insiders believe that the company won’t go below 10.5mm thickness on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim to maintain reliability.

Notably, the Honor Magic V3 foldable is nearly 9.2~9.3mm thick, while Xiaomi’s Mix Fold 4 is 9.47mm thick. Samsung has also reportedly reverse-engineered Huawei’s foldable phones in favor of reducing the thickness of its Galaxy foldables.