If this year has shown us anything, it’s that foldables remain a luxury for most buyers. Case in point: Apple’s first foldable, the iPhone Duo, has joined the fold, and some early owners say its inner screen cracked along the hinge within hours of unboxing.
Samsung, which is the king of foldables, hasn’t escaped the issues either, because Galaxy Z Fold 8 owners on Reddit continue to report that the inner screen’s corners bend under light pressure.
There’s just too much nuance for these phones not to be a gamble. Now, Samsung is preparing something even riskier. Rumors suggest it will launch the world’s first rollable phone you can actually buy in 2027, possibly called the Galaxy Z Slide.
It’s not enough to fold phones anymore
Android Headlines has amplified rumors of Samsung’s next flexible-screen phone, which would be a rollable with a screen that slides out of the body instead of folding in half. The idea has been around almost as long as foldables, but no company has officially sold a rollable phone yet.
Samsung’s model is expected to launch in July or at its own event, and we could see it joining a new series instead of the Galaxy Z lineup. As for the event itself, the company hasn’t announced a date. But its summer Galaxy Unpacked events have landed in July for the past two years, with July 9 in Brooklyn in 2025 and July 22 in London in 2026.
All that said, you’ll want to manage your expectations. Samsung Display, the company’s screen-making arm, has shown sliding and rolling panels at tech shows since at least 2022. Specifically, at CES 2022, it demoed a Flex Slidable display that pulled out sideways for more screen space. At Display Week that same year, it added a Flex Slide that stretched from both ends and a Flex Roll that tucked most of the screen into one side.
On and on, the concepts kept coming, although there were no finalized plans to share. That’s not to say that demos can’t turn into real products. Samsung’s Fold and Flip phones appeared as prototypes at several display expos before they reached stores. However, the wait can be excruciatingly long.
Samsung is betting on its premium phones
It seems Samsung will invest much of its time in foldables because there’s more money in them currently. South Korean outlet Electronic Times reported recently that Samsung is cutting production of its midrange Galaxy A series by about 20% in the fourth quarter, compared with its original plans.
The report cites unnamed industry sources, and one says component orders for the quarter dropped by about 20%, working out to roughly 10 million fewer phones a year. Another says Samsung plans to cut Galaxy A production by more than 10% again next year, which can only point to trouble in paradise.
Chipflation, it seems, is affecting the popular smartphone maker worse than fans realize. Memory now makes up more than half the cost of a midrange or budget phone, and circuit boards and capacitors are also going to AI chips first, which makes them harder for phone makers to get.
The Galaxy A series makes up about 70% of the 230 to 240 million phones Samsung ships each year, and most users would rather get one because those phones are largely affordable. They undercut the flagships on price while borrowing features such as AI tools and long software support from the main phones.
Anyone shopping for a midrange Galaxy may find fewer options, higher prices, or both, and Samsung might have to offer some compensation for that, such as longer update promises or bigger trade-in deals. Alternatively, Samsung may simply count on its flagships to fill the gap.
Still, even with 10 million fewer Galaxy A phones a year, there are enough phones to go around. If anything, it may quell the yearly phone-buying habit, as people hold on to the phones they already have for longer.
