Samsung has been taking a hard stance on leaks lately, forcing some prominent leakers to remove images of the company’s upcoming products, yet despite that Samsung itself has – presumably accidentally – revealed the price of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.
Before you get too excited, this is the Romanian price, as spotted by leaker @rquandt in a document talking about a giveaway competition for people who pre-register to buy the phone.
It mentions that the retail price for a 256GB model of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 in a graphite shade is 6,599 Romanian lei. That translates to roughly $1,500 / £1,145 / AU$2,185, however we wouldn’t expect conversions to be accurate.
Samsung's own PDF on their website confirming pricing of the Galaxy Z Flip5 for Romania: 256GB is 6599 RON = 1335 Euros. (in a doc saying they'll run a give-away for 10 devices if you pre-register from July 26 - Aug 2) https://t.co/inIPX2qN0WJuly 13, 2023
More tellingly, that appears to be a price rise compared to the equivalent Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 model in Romania. While the internet lists various current prices for that phone, an article we found on Mobilissimo claims that the launch price for a 256GB model was 5,699 lei.
So that would make this year’s phone 900 lei (or around $200 / £150 / AU$300) more expensive. Again, conversions won’t be entirely accurate, but with a 256GB Galaxy Z Flip 4 costing $1,059.99 / £1,059 / AU$1,649, that could mean we’re looking at something like $1,250 / £1,250 / AU$1,950 for the 256GB Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.
That’s using those approximate conversions while factoring in that Samsung charged the same in dollars as in pounds for the current model.
Before you panic at the price, note that the 256GB model will reportedly be the middle configuration of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, just as it was with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4.
But if we use the same back of the envelope calculations for the other capacities, we could be looking at roughly $1,200 / £1,200 / AU$1,800 (up from $999.99 / £999 / AU$1,499) for the 128GB model, and $1,380 / £1,380 / AU$2,150 (rising from $1,179.99 / £1,199 / AU$1,849) for the 512GB one.
A pricey prospect
While we wouldn’t expect those figures to be exactly right, the 256GB model at least will almost certainly be more expensive in Romania, and therefore probably elsewhere too.
That’s a shame, because one of the main selling points of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip line is that these phones are quite affordable by foldable phone standards. Keeping the starting price just under $/£1,000 probably also made the Z Flip 4 look quite appealing, but this year it’s likely that the starting price will be in four digits.
That might be justified, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 rumored to have a new hinge design, a more powerful chipset, a new camera sensor, and a much larger cover screen. So it could still rank among the best foldable phones, but whether it will be one of the best selling entries outright is another matter entirely.