Eight years can change the way people see a piece of technology. What once seemed unfamiliar can become part of everyday life, and features that once felt remarkable can eventually become expectations.
That progression is particularly evident in mobile phones. Among these developments, foldable technology introduced a new possibility for a smartphone that could change its physical form depending on what the user needed.
Samsung has spent those eight years refining the details that make foldable technology possible. Its work has covered everything from display durability and crease visibility to hinge engineering, materials, battery performance, device thickness, and software.
Kristine Go, Head of Mobile Experience at Samsung Electronics Philippines, said the company’s approach to foldables has evolved through thousands of engineering decisions.
“When we launched the first Galaxy Fold, the challenge was proving that a foldable smartphone was possible. We’ve come a long way since then,” she told BusinessWorld. “We’ve made those advancements not only because of our rigorous lab testing and materials innovation, but also by understanding how millions of people actually carry, open, close, and use their devices over time.”
Eight years of lessons
Samsung’s approach has not been built around a single specification. Instead, the company’s objective has always been to make technology that improves and simplifies users’ lives.
“Our goal is always to make technology that will make the lives of our users better and easier. So, while we started with proving that foldable smartphones are possible, at its core, we also truly believed that foldable smartphones are useful and meaningful,” Go explained.
The Galaxy Z Fold is built around portability while giving users a phone and tablet in one device, making the larger display useful for productivity and other activities that benefit from additional screen space. The Galaxy Z Flip takes a different approach, using its pocketable form as a tool for self-expression.
“We believe the mobile experience will become less about one fixed screen and more about giving users the right screen for the right moment,” she noted.
In addition, millions of users provided Samsung with feedback and real-world usage patterns that helped the company understand how people interacted with the form factor beyond controlled testing.
“Eight years of user feedback, engineering refinement, and real-world usage data have given us a foundation that is difficult to replicate, and we believe that experience will continue to shape the future of the category,” Go said.
She added that Samsung takes a holistic approach to yearly improvements rather than simply adding specifications to a product sheet. It seeks a balance between what consumers want and what the technology can reliably deliver.
For instance, the devices have become lighter and thinner, and battery capacity and optimization have increased.
Samsung has also integrated Galaxy AI into the user interface to make the user experience more proactive. Beginning with the Galaxy Z8 series, the company is building a deeper system-level foundation involving engines, policies, and intelligence that allow agents, applications, and services to work together, in collaboration with Google.
“A foldable can be compact when users need portability, larger when they need more space, and more flexible when they want to move between watching, working, creating, and communicating. It gives users more ways to interact with AI depending on the task, the screen, and the moment,” Go said.
What comes next for the foldable experience
Samsung noted that consumers now expect foldable smartphones to meet the standards set by flagship devices, a development reflected in the number of existing users returning to the category.
The Galaxy Z Fold7 recorded a 32% repurchase rate, while the Galaxy Z Flip7 posted a 37% repurchase rate. The company also reported that purchases of the Galaxy Z Fold7 among former Ultra users increased by 1.9 times compared with the previous generation.
For Samsung, the figures point to a customer base that includes both people who have already adopted foldables and longtime flagship users exploring the form for the first time.
Eight years of developing Galaxy foldables have also shaped Samsung’s perspective of what makes the category useful. Experience has taught the company that technical possibility alone does not determine whether a new form becomes useful.
Go explained that a foldable has to withstand daily use. It has to deliver the performance consumers expect from a flagship device; it has to provide meaningful advantages from its ability to change form.
“Our focus will continue to be refining foldables around the way people actually use technology. Ultimately, our goal is not to make users adapt to foldables. It’s to make foldables fit more naturally into how people work, watch, create, and communicate,” she concluded.
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