Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 could get this radical redesign

(Epitome credit: Let'due south Get Digital)

Update: The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold iv could gear up Fold 3's biggest flaw : the nether-display camera. And co-ordinate to a new rumor, the Samsung Milky way Z Fold 4 won't have a slot to store an S Pen , which could be rather disappointing and a missed blueprint upgrade.

Given the success of the Galaxy Z Fold iii, Samsung is doubtlessly working on a new version of its foldable telephone for 2022. And based on a recently approved patent, the company could be considering a new expect for the next edition of the all-time foldable phone.

Permit's Go Digital says that before this month, Samsung won approval from the World Intellectual Property Office for a a patent that covers a foldable phone with an expanded screen size and a horizontal swivel. To aid illustrate the look of a such a device, the Dutch site created a concept render showing a Milky way Z Fold with a horizontal hinge.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3, like previous Folds, uses a vertical swivel that allows you lot to open the phone like a book revealing the interior display. A horizontal hinge would shift that orientation so that the device opens more than like a flip phone — only with a Galaxy Z Fold-sized screen, presumably.

Galaxy Z Fold 4 renders based on a patent — (Paradigm credit: Let's Go Digital)

The advantage of switching to a horizontal hinge seems like it would give Samsung the opportunity to boost the size of a futurity Galaxy Z Fold while maintaining the portability of the foldable phone. Samsung touts the Galaxy Z Fold equally a productivity booster, and having a bigger screen might appeal to people who want to get things washed on the go.

When closed, the phone in the Let's Get Digital render offers what looks to exist a foursquare exterior display — another contrast from the 6.ii-inch cover brandish on the Galaxy Z Fold three.

All this doesn't necessarily mean Samsung is eyeing this detail blueprint for the Milky way Z Fold 4, which yous'd effigy would come out in the latter half of 2022. Patents don't necessarily translate to finished products — many such patents never result in products that encounter the lite of day.

Still, in that location's no denying that foldable phones are of increasing interest to Samsung. Last month, the company said that it sold five times the number of Galaxy Z Fold 3 units as it had the Galaxy Z Fold 2.

And before this week, Slashgear picked up a study of Korea that claimed Samsung expects to ship 10 million foldable phones adjacent year. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 volition make upwards 29% of the foldables Samsung produces, the report claims, while the successor the Galaxy Z Flip 3 will account for 68% of foldable telephone product.

Samsung currently dominates the market for foldable phones between the Galaxy Z Fold iii and Galaxy Z Flip iii. No real competitor has emerged, and just this week, rumors surfaced that Google was scrapping plans for a Pixel Fold that would have gone upward against Samsung's devices.

Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom's Guide. He has potent opinions nigh Apple tree, the Oakland Athletics and old movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.