Above: Samsung’s ZFold 3 and accessories.

Originally published in Newsday BusinessDay for October 14, 2021

Gianmarco Leri, Samsung’s Product Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, led with the hot new features introduced in the company’s new Galaxy ZFold and ZFlip foldable smartphones.

“The Z series has a groundbreaking and revolutionary hinge mechanism,” Leri said, and the user can use the device folded at any angle. The ZFlip is a very fashionable phone.”

The new phones use Gorilla Glass Victus, a new, stronger glass and the ZFold is compatible with a new version of the SPen, though it doesn’t work with older models of the stylus.

The foldable phones are rated for IPX8 water resistance to 1.5 metres, but Leri was careful to note that they are not dust resistant and Samsung advises against the use of the phone at the beach or in any environment in which there is a significant amount of fine dust.

The new phones were quietly introduced at the Samsung Experience centres at Gulf City Mall, WestMall and at Mobile Expressions at the C3 centre two weeks ago.

Off the shelf, the phones are available in their retail livery, black, green and silver for the ZFold and black, cream, green and lavender for the ZFlip, but Samsung offers additional colours for the deeply fashion conscious on their online stores.

Despite the design challenges for case designers on a device that folds in half, Samsung has launched the devices with a range of in-house cases and third parties are ramping up production of their own lines of protective sheaths.

This is the third version of the ZFold smartphone and the second iteration of the ZFlip, but it’s the first time that Samsung has made a push into the Caribbean region with the products.

The phones are available only in Puerto Rico and in Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean region for now, as Samsung, along with the wider world of manufacturing, grapples with global chip shortages and supply chain fractures that have led to production slowdowns across a wide range of devices and technologies.
In Puerto Rico, the ZFold sold out its first shipment in a week and a half.

“We were cautious,” Leri said, “because it was a brand new phone and a new concept and we were curious to find out how it will go down in the market.”
“With the chip shortages, there is a shortage of devices and we hope they will have a great reception.”
“We are looking to launch with carriers in the Bahamas and Jamaica next.

“The supply issues means that we are going market by market. We are hoping that by Q1 next year things will be back to normal and we will have supply to support wider distribution.”
“We know it’s a big task to mainstream foldable phones, but both are 5G ready, though that will depend on the carrier for activation.”