The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Special Edition (SE), released as the W25 in China, is unlikely to ever make it's way to the United States or even Europe, but the improvements it makes over the standard Galaxy Z Fold 6 that was released worldwide earlier this year could be something we see in next year's Samsung foldable.
For one, the special edition of the Z Fold 6 has a thinner frame, but anyone who's gotten their hands on the new foldable are raving about the crease in the display, which appears to be massively improved over what you get with the normal Fold 6.
With foldable phones, there's usually a crease in the interior display where the panel folds in two. In the case of Samsung's past Z Fold models, that crease has been visible, especially when there's a light background on the display.
Regular Samsung leaker Ice Universe hinted that Samsung had improved the crease in early October saying, "This time, [Samsung has] done a good job in crease control, better than ever."
Display analyst Ross Young replied to that tweet saying that it was due to Samsung UFG for the first time. UFG refers to "ultra-flexible glass." A different leaker, Jukanlosreve, claimed that UFG has a higher strength than UTG (ultra-thin glass) and a flat screen. Up to now, Samsung has been using UTG in its foldable displays.
Ice Universe returned with a video today (November 7) that shows off the harder-to-spot crease. With a white background, it's hard to really make out unsubstantial the crease actually is.
The crease of Samsung W25 is very shallow, almost the best on the market. pic.twitter.com/zMnDfJoJHXNovember 7, 2024
IceUniverse also posted another video with the screen turned off where the crease is perceptible but still pretty flat. The other video shows off the Z Fold 6 SE against the OnePlus Open, our current pick for the best foldable phone. The differences between the two devices are pretty apparent in the second video.
Crease contrastSamsung W25（Fold SE）vs OPPO Find N3（OnePlus Open） pic.twitter.com/Enpg8EmAS2November 7, 2024
Maybe the foldable phone crease is functionally impossible to completely remove, but it's certainly not as prominent as it was.
Again, the W25 is likely to never launch outside of China or South Korea, but we can't imagine that Samsung wouldn't put these improvements into the Galaxy Z Fold 7 that's expected to come out next year as part of the phone maker's annual release of new foldables. If anything, the Z Fold 6 SE might be a test for the Korean company to both try out UFG displays and see what it's capable of making before a more global launch.
