Perhaps the biggest drawback to the best folding phones is price. For example, Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 5 is priced at $1,800, which is almost enough to buy two of many other non-folding flagship phones.

Samsung may be working on a solution in the form of the Galaxy Z Fold FE (Fan Edition), noted Kro_roe on X, a prominent Samsung leaker.

According to the leak, the Galaxy Z Fold FE could have a Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 and Exynos 2000 series processor under the hood. This would be a much less powerful chip than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 found in the regular Z Fold 5, but still a respectable chip. So far, rumors suggest that this fan edition will be the Galaxy Z Fold 6 FE, but based on past Samsung FE line phone releases, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 FE would be a more sensible naming convention.

Because the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is built around multitasking, Samsung can only reduce the processor and RAM by a small amount. Otherwise, the entire purpose of the phone would be negated. According to this rumor, the company will offer 12GB and 16GB RAM options. It could also offer 256GB and 512GB of storage, which would be a sensible amount based on what is currently offered in the more expensive versions.

Interestingly, the phone is reportedly thicker than the regular Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, at 14.2mm when unfolded and 6.3mm when folded. The existing Z Fold 5 is 13.4 mm and 6.1 mm.

The rumor also suggests that Samsung was working on the Galaxy Z Flip FE, but it never actually made it to market. That may be because the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is already significantly more affordable than the Fold, leaving less room for Samsung to make the cuts necessary to separate the FE version from the main phone. However, the Motorola Razr (2023) proves that it is possible to make a cheaper flip-style foldable phone.

As always, such rumors need to be taken with a grain of salt. While Kuro has a reasonable track record of success, there is always the possibility that these rumors are inaccurate. It absolutely makes sense that Samsung would release a more affordable foldable smartphone.