The foldable iPhone is driving massive improvements for Galaxy Z Fold 8, but the S26 may suffer

As the release date for the foldable iPhone drew nearer, Samsung found the drive to improve its foldable flagships considerably. The company has now set ambitious sales targets and hardware improvement roadmaps for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the Galaxy Z Flip 8, but the Galaxy S26 series may suffer for it.

Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Flip 8 to excel further

After Samsung drastically improved its foldable smartphones this year, they exploded in popularity. Once a declining segment, the Galaxy foldables are now perhaps the company’s main focus.

Samsung, according to a new report (translated source), has decided to increase its combined sales targets for the Galaxy Z Flip 8 and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 by 10 percent, up to 6.7 million units. This is a change of pace from previous generations, where the company was actually decreasing sales targets for its foldables.

The reason that Samsung feels confident enough to do this is the success of its current foldables.

Foldable iPhone driving innovation at Samsung

With the threat of Apple entering into the foldable smartphone market looming over Samsung’s head, the company has started pouring in tons of effort into its foldables. According to the report, the improvements that we saw with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 this year were just the start.

Samsung plans to make the Fold 8 even slimmer and lighter, and is focusing on bringing the same level of improvement to the Flip 8 as well. The company believes that the Flip series has a lot more potential that can be tapped into to get consumers more interested in it.

Don’t neglect the Galaxy S26, please

Apple fans have, of course, been waiting for a foldable iPhone for years now. Samsung, in my opinion, had grown very complacent with making foldables that lagged behind competing phones from China. Apple’s threat to Samsung’s market share has finally spurred the company into action, and the Fold 7 was its first foray into top-of-the-line foldable smartphones.

However, as the report mentions too, Samsung has all eyes on the foldables, and may neglect its S-series flagships. I’ve mentioned before how I don’t really like the design of the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and how the Galaxy S26 series isn’t seeing any major changes at all.

Hopefully, Samsung starts making the best S-series flagships with the Galaxy S27, alongside superb foldables. And it can start with bigger batteries.

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