The Galaxy Z Fold 6’s battery is so small that a flip phone just beat it

Ben Schoon | Jul 18 2024 - 4:30 am PT

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series was once on the bleeding edge of foldable tech, but it’s been far outpaced. As evidence of that, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is still using the same battery that’s so old and small that an upcoming foldable flip phone just beat it by a healthy margin.

Since 2021’s Galaxy Z Fold 3, Samsung has been using a 4,400 mAh battery in all of its book-style foldables. That’s actually down from the 4,500 mAh battery that was used on the Galaxy Z Fold 2, too. The size hasn’t been changed through the Fold 4, 5, or the most recent Fold 6, with varying results. The Fold 4 and 5 had significantly better battery life than the Fold 3 thanks to a more efficient chipset, but the Fold 6 hits the law of diminishing returns.

Batteries in foldables are, admittedly, not an easy task. And, given Samsung’s history with batteries, it’s understandable that the company is playing it safe. But, at the same time, the industry is quickly outpacing the Galaxy Z Fold series when it comes to battery capacity.

For example, the Honor Magic V3 announced last week has a bigger battery than the Galaxy Z Fold 6. Honor offers 5,150 mAh compared to the Fold 6’s 4,400 mAh, but that’s while the Magic V3 is drastically thinner at a mere 9.2mm, almost 3mm thinner than Samsung’s device. Honor is using different battery tech, but it’s still a huge difference in capacity.

*Despite being 24% thinner, the Magic V3’s battery is over 17% larger than the Fold 6’s*

Meanwhile, really hammering home the point that Samsung is behind the curve, Xiaomi just announced a foldable flip phone that will have a much bigger battery than the Fold 6.

The Xiaomi Mix Flip is launching later this week, and yesterday, the company announced that the foldable flip phone will have a battery capacity of 4,780 mAh. That’s nearly 9% larger than the Fold, despite the device as a whole being far smaller. Foldable flip phones have been known for having very small batteries, so Xiaomi’s capacity is simply impressive before you even consider the fact that it beats out Samsung’s flagship book-style foldable.

*This comparatively tiny flip phone has a bigger battery than the Galaxy Z Fold 6*

Needless to say, Samsung is extremely overdue for a battery upgrade on the Galaxy Z Fold series, and we certainly hope that’ll come with the next generation. Then again, we were hoping for that three years ago too…

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 are available for pre-order now with up to $1,200 in trade-in value, doubled storage for free, and other perks. You can also get up to $150 more offer with our link to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 at Samsung.com.

Samsung starts shipping its new foldables as well as Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Buds 3 (and Buds 3 Pro), Galaxy Watch 7, and Galaxy Watch Ultra on July 24.