Here’s Samsung’s Advice for Apple and Its Upcoming Folding iPhone

Samsung executives have advised Apple that device weight is the most critical factor for the success of foldable smartphones. Samsung highlights its own progress in reducing the weight of the Galaxy Z Fold8 as a key competitive advantage in the growing foldable market.
Why it matters
As Apple prepares to enter the foldable market, hardware design constraints like weight and form factor remain the primary hurdles for consumer adoption.
That's according to Hee-Cheul Moon, head of Samsung's Advanced Mechanical R&D Group, who sat with WIRED on a virtual Zoom call with Seungki Choi, head of Samsung's Smartphone R&D Group. Before the talk veered toward Apple, the pair spoke about how the company managed to shave 75 grams off the weight of its latest Galaxy Z Fold8 in the 7 years since it debuted the original.
Weight is integral to a folding phone's success. If the device is too chunky and heavy, you're less likely to want to use it. Over the past two years, folding devices from Honor, Google, and Samsung have rapidly gotten lighter, which each iteration featuring thinner designs. It may be why Samsung saw preorders for its latest folding handsets increase 30 percent globally versus last year's models, with the Fold8—the device with a new smaller shape that’s easier to hold—accounting for nearly half.
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