Earlier this year, Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S20 series along with Galaxy Z Flip, it’s second-generation foldable device. Unlike Galaxy Fold, the Galaxy Z Flip targets a different group of users with a staggering $500+ cheaper price tag. Well, it is still early for its successor to arrive but that isn’t stopping the South Korean giant from working on it. Apparently, the folks at LetsGoDigital found a newly published patent that shows Galaxy Z Flip with a different camera bump.
The sketches were published by Samsung in Germany with the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) on April 28, 2020. The patent shows a bunch of sketches of an upcoming foldable device which is speculated to be the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 2.
There are basically two designs that aren’t that different except for the rear camera setup. In Model A, you can see that the phone is identical to the Galaxy Z Flip. But here, Samsung has added a third sensor and arranged the camera bump in a horizontal manner on the left corner of the back panel. There’s a LED flash on the right which leaves just a small space for the secondary display which can show a few calls and messages notifications and that’s all.
Moving to Model B, the sketch shows how Samsung added the third sensor but aligned it in a vertically stacked camera bump which leaves enough space for a comparatively larger secondary display which is now a lot operable than before. We already have a 12MP wide-angle and 12MP ultra-wide-angle sensor on Galaxy Z Flip. The newly added third sensor could be a dedicated zoom/telephoto sensor possibly with 3x zoom but there’s no confirmation yet.
The hinge mechanism allowing the phone to exhibit clamshell-like fold appears to be the same as the predecessor. Talking about the release, Galaxy Z Flip 2 is scheduled to release in February 2021 following the same timeline as the Galaxy S-series. It could be released at the MWC 2021 if all goes well. Note that Samsung could use either of the designs or neither of ‘em and simply patenting it for monetary benefits in the long run which is something smartphone manufacturers could usually do. At this moment, take it with a pinch of salt as it is still too early to zero in a confirmed design of the upcoming device.
Source (Dutch)