Will Gen Z Buy Into Flip Phones? Samsung’s Z Flip 5 Aims to Find Out

Cher Horowitz had one, Serena van der Woodsen had one, Lizzie McGuire had one, and now, in 2023, Sydney Sweeney has one. I am speaking about flip telephones, which by way of the Nineties and early 2000s had been the must-have tech standing image for teen ladies in all places.

I ought to know, I used to be considered one of them. Once I rocked as much as college, it was with my trusty Motorola Razr — an icon of its time that was famously endorsed by one other icon of that point: Paris Hilton.

Simply as Motorola tapped Hilton in 2001, Samsung is now leaning closely on Sweeney, star of the beloved-by-Gen Z HBO present Euphoria and a part of the solid of The White Lotus’ first season, to attempt to persuade the kids of immediately that they want a flip telephone of their lives. Particularly, it desires to promote them the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, which it unveiled in Seoul, South Korea, together with the heftier Galaxy Z Fold 5 telephone, Galaxy Tab S9 and Galaxy Watch 6 throughout final week’s Unpacked occasion.

New and notable options of the Z Flip 5 embody a bigger cowl display on the entrance of the telephone and a brand new hinge that enables it to take a seat totally flat when open and shut fully with no hole. It goes on sale Aug. 11, and you’ll preorder the telephone beginning at $1,000 (£1,049, AU$1,649). CNET’s Lisa Eadicicco has been utilizing one and says it is a “step in the precise path” for Samsung.

Sweeney appeared on the occasion, each in a video and in individual with a slicked-back ponytail and quick grey costume, collaborating in a reside demo the place she snapped a selfie with Ok-Pop idol Wonyoung. It is the cross-cultural model collaboration of desires, and a savvy transfer by Samsung if it desires to enchantment to teen ladies globally. And it seems that it does.

In its advert for the Z Flip 5, Sweeney says the telephone is a “game-changer” for when she’s filming movies on her personal and talks about how her favourite half is the choice to personalize it to suit her personal fashion. With retro pastel graphics, the advert is designed to be catnip to younger ladies. However Samsung nonetheless has a struggle on its arms if it desires to persuade this viewers that the Z Flip 5 needs to be their subsequent improve.

The destiny of flip telephones

Sadly for the flip telephone, it is a design that fell out of favor with teen ladies (and everybody else) with the rise of the smartphone. For the previous 15 years, the ever present slimline slab is the one fashion of telephone that is been price having — maybe till now. Over the previous few years, makers of Android telephones have been growing their very own foldable telephones, together with new generations of the Razr and the newly launched Google Pixel Fold, packing versatile shows that may be flipped out to extend the display measurement. Nonetheless, foldable telephones accounted for just one.2% of telephone shipments final 12 months, in response to IDC, with Samsung dominating that class.

Nearly all of these telephones are related in measurement to a typical smartphone, and double in display measurement when unfolded. However the Z Flip is half the dimensions of a typical telephone, and expands to the dimensions of most smartphones in fold-out mode, making it ideally suited for individuals who like the concept of carrying a smaller machine — a teenage lady, maybe?

The “classic” clamshell design of the flip telephone has the potential to pique the curiosity of Gen Z customers, most of whom are largely loyal iPhone customers, in response to a Monetary Instances report from February. There’s additionally some anecdotal proof to counsel that some teenagers are already ditching their smartphones in favor of “dumb” old-school flip telephones, in response to CNN and different media stories. The Z Flip 5 affords one of the best of each worlds — the nostalgic appear and feel of yesterday’s tech, with the cutting-edge options of immediately’s.

It is notable, stated CCS Perception chief analyst Ben Wooden, that Samsung’s advertising and promoting campaigns for the telephone closely function ladies and feminine influencers. (Its different merchandise are all largely promoted by members of male Ok-Pop band BTS.) Android telephone customers have traditionally skewed barely male, in response to CCS analysis, with producers struggling to draw as many feminine customers. However the Z Flip 5 might present some actual competitors to the iPhone on this regard, and the inclusion of Sweeney ought to “assist drive curiosity within the product,” stated Wooden.

“Having an attractively designed machine that provides a extra compact various to an iPhone could also be extra interesting to feminine prospects, and anecdotal suggestions to this point appears to counsel the Flip type issue does resonate nicely with ladies,” he stated.

Watch this: Galaxy Z Flip 5: First Impressions From Seoul, Korea

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Flippin’ expensive

One potential roadblock for the Z Flip 5 on its strategy to successful the hearts and minds of teenagers in all places is worth. Foldable telephones have struggled on the entire to achieve mainstream traction not less than partly resulting from their $1,000-plus worth tags. The Z Flip 5 is available in at slightly below this, at $999, making it extra inexpensive than most. (For distinction, Samsung’s different foldable telephone, the Z Fold 5, begins at $1,800.)

It might be in Samsung’s favor that the enhancements it is made to this 12 months’s Z Flip provide higher worth for cash, stated Anisha Bhatia, senior analyst at GlobalData. 

“Samsung is following its Galaxy S23 technique by giving shoppers ‘extra’ for a similar worth on this time of inflationary stress,” she stated. “The Flip 5 prices the identical as its predecessor at $999 however doubles the bottom storage to 256 GB.”

Make no mistake: That is nonetheless a hefty quantity to half with whether or not you are an adolescent or a mum or dad of 1. However no high-end telephone nowadays comes low cost, and the Z Flip 5 affords loads for the cash, whereas standing out in a crowded market with its distinctive design.

If any telephone can tempt Euphoria and Ok-Pop followers to embrace Android and foldable display know-how, it would not be shocking if the Z Flip 5 is the one to do it.