Samsung Electronics is preparing what may be its most ambitious foldable phone yet — a wider, thinner device with S Pen support that takes direct aim at Apple’s iPad mini and blurs the line between smartphone and tablet more aggressively than anything the company has shipped before.
The device, widely referred to as the Galaxy Z Fold7 “Wide” or “Z Wide Fold,” has been the subject of intensifying leaks in recent weeks. And the picture forming is one of a company betting big that the foldable form factor still has room to grow — not just thinner and lighter, but fundamentally wider in ambition.
According to reporting by Android Authority, the upcoming device will feature a larger inner display measuring roughly 8 inches diagonally — a significant jump from the Galaxy Z Fold6’s 7.6-inch panel. More importantly, the phone is expected to ship with S Pen support, a feature Samsung controversially removed from the standard Z Fold7 line. The S Pen won’t be housed inside the device itself, but the wider body is said to accommodate stylus input natively, a move that positions the phone squarely as a productivity tool rather than just a premium novelty.
That’s a deliberate choice. Samsung has spent years trying to convince enterprise users and creative professionals that foldables are more than expensive party tricks. The S Pen integration — even if it requires carrying the stylus separately — signals that the Z Wide Fold is meant for people who actually want to get work done on a large mobile screen.
The timing is telling. Samsung is reportedly planning to launch the Z Wide Fold alongside the standard Galaxy Z Fold7 and Galaxy Z Flip7, potentially at a Galaxy Unpacked event in July 2025. Leaked information suggests the wider model could carry a premium price north of $2,000, though Samsung hasn’t confirmed specifics. If accurate, the device would sit at the very top of Samsung’s consumer hardware lineup, competing not just with other phones but with small tablets and even lightweight laptops for share of pocket and bag space.
Recent reports from X (formerly Twitter) and Korean tech forums have added further detail. Leaker Ice Universe, who has a strong track record on Samsung hardware, has posted display specification claims suggesting the cover screen will also grow substantially — possibly to 6.5 inches or larger — making the phone usable as a full-size smartphone even when folded shut. That addresses one of the longest-running complaints about Samsung’s Fold series: that the narrow outer display feels cramped and compromised compared to standard flagship phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
The internal engineering challenges are considerable. Making a foldable wider while keeping it thin enough to be pocketable requires advances in hinge design, battery architecture, and display durability. Samsung’s Ultra Thin Glass technology, now in its fifth generation, will be critical. So will the new hinge mechanism, which multiple sources describe as lighter and more compact than previous iterations.
Battery life remains the elephant in the room. Wider displays consume more power. Samsung is reportedly targeting a battery capacity above 5,000 mAh for the Z Wide Fold, split across two cells on either side of the hinge. Whether that’s enough to power an 8-inch display through a full workday of productivity use is an open question — and one Samsung’s engineers are presumably losing sleep over right now.
There’s a competitive dimension here that’s hard to ignore. Huawei’s Mate XT, a tri-fold device that unfurls into a near-tablet-sized screen, has generated enormous buzz in China despite limited global availability. Honor and other Chinese manufacturers are racing to ship their own large-format foldables. Google’s Pixel Fold successor is expected later this year with a wider aspect ratio. Samsung, which pioneered the modern foldable category with the original Galaxy Fold in 2019, can’t afford to cede the high ground.
But the real competitor isn’t another foldable. It’s the iPad mini.
Apple’s smallest tablet, refreshed in late 2024 with an A17 Pro chip and Apple Intelligence support, occupies exactly the niche Samsung is targeting: a portable screen large enough for real work and media consumption, small enough to carry everywhere. An 8-inch foldable that fits in a jacket pocket when closed could offer everything the iPad mini does — and make phone calls. That’s a proposition Apple literally cannot match without building a foldable of its own, something Cupertino shows no signs of doing anytime soon.
Samsung’s software strategy for the Z Wide Fold will matter as much as the hardware. One UI’s foldable-specific features — app continuity between screens, multi-window modes, taskbar functionality — have improved steadily but still feel like afterthoughts compared to iPadOS’s tablet optimizations. The company has reportedly been working with Google on Android 16 enhancements specifically designed for large-format foldable displays, including better split-screen multitasking and improved stylus input APIs. Whether those improvements ship polished or half-baked will largely determine whether the Z Wide Fold feels like a true tablet replacement or an oversized phone with a crease.
The S Pen angle deserves closer scrutiny. Samsung killed its Galaxy Note line in 2021, folding stylus functionality into the Galaxy S Ultra series and, for a time, the Z Fold series. The removal of S Pen support from the standard Z Fold7 — reported by multiple outlets including Android Authority — suggests Samsung is segmenting its foldable lineup more aggressively. The standard Fold becomes the mainstream large-screen foldable. The Wide Fold becomes the productivity flagship. Different devices for different buyers, at different price points.
That segmentation carries risk. Samsung’s foldable sales, while industry-leading, have plateaued. Shipment estimates from research firms like IDC and Counterpoint suggest the foldable market grew modestly in 2024 but hasn’t achieved the mainstream breakout many analysts predicted. Adding a more expensive, more niche device to the lineup could cannibalize standard Fold sales without meaningfully expanding the total addressable market. Or it could attract an entirely new buyer — the creative professional or road warrior who currently carries both a phone and a tablet and would love to consolidate.
Samsung seems to be betting on the latter.
The manufacturing implications are significant too. Foldable displays remain far more expensive to produce than rigid OLED panels, and yields at Samsung Display’s facilities have only recently reached levels that make mass production economically viable. A wider display with S Pen digitizer layers adds complexity and cost. Samsung will need to balance premium pricing with volume ambitions — a calculus the company has struggled with in previous Fold generations, where high prices limited adoption to early adopters and tech enthusiasts.
Durability concerns persist. Every foldable phone ships with an asterisk: the crease, the fragile inner screen, the ingress of dust and debris into the hinge mechanism. Samsung has made genuine progress here — the Z Fold6 is meaningfully more durable than the original Fold — but a wider device with a larger folding surface area presents new stress points. Samsung’s IPX8 water resistance rating is expected to carry over, but drop protection and screen longevity will face fresh scrutiny from reviewers and early buyers alike.
And then there’s the question of accessories. If the S Pen isn’t stored internally, Samsung will need to offer a compelling carrying solution — a case with a pen slot, a magnetic attachment, something. The Galaxy Z Fold3 and Fold4 offered S Pen support with awkward case-based solutions that few users actually adopted. Samsung has presumably learned from that experience, but the execution will matter enormously. A stylus you leave at home isn’t a feature. It’s a spec sheet bullet point.
The broader strategic picture is one of Samsung defending its premium hardware position on multiple fronts simultaneously. Apple dominates the high end of the traditional smartphone market. Chinese manufacturers are attacking from below with increasingly capable foldables at lower prices. Google is pushing its own hardware vision with the Pixel line. Samsung’s response: go wider, go bigger, go more productive. Make the device that nobody else can — or will — build.
Whether consumers are willing to pay $2,000 or more for that vision remains the central uncertainty. The foldable phone has proven it can exist. It has proven it can be refined. What it hasn’t yet proven, after six years on the market, is that it can be essential. The Galaxy Z Wide Fold is Samsung’s most forceful argument yet that it can be.
We’ll likely know in July.
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