While there has been a gradual drip feed of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 leaks, suddenly three different leaks have emerged at once: they give us a much clearer idea about some aspects of the phone, including the build, battery, and chipset.
First up, both the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 will apparently have an IP rating, meaning some official amount of resistance to water and dust. That’s according to “people in the know” speaking to SamMobile, though sadly they don’t know enough to be specific about what rating the phones will have.
Still, any amount of protection is a great upgrade as far as we’re concerned. After all, foldables are among the most expensive phones you can buy, so it’s especially desirable for them to be durable – yet so far none of Samsung’s have an IP rating. That’s perhaps understandable given all the moving parts, but we’re hopeful that this leak is right and the company has found a way to add water resistance.
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A battery downgrade
Next up, the battery for a phone believed to be the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 has been certified in China, as spotted by MyFixGuide. The certification reveals that the phone has two batteries, one of which is 2,215mAh, and the other 2,060mAh, combining for a total capacity of 4,275mAh.
That’s not particularly big for a foldable phone, and is actually slightly smaller than the 4,500mAh one in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2, but a previous leak also suggested the battery would be smaller than in the Z Fold 2 (though not quite by this much). While we’d take this with a pinch of salt, information in certifications tends to be correct, so the battery likely is 4,275mAh.
Finally, @UniverseIce (a leaker with a reasonable track record) has said that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 has a Snapdragon 888 chipset and is about 13g lighter than the Z Fold 2 (which would make it about 269g).
As my friend said, Galaxy Z Fold3 uses Snapdragon 888 processor.It is about 13g lighter than Z Fold2.April 20, 2021
The reduction in weight would make sense if the battery is going to be smaller – especially as we’ve also previously heard that the screen might be a bit smaller too.
As for the chipset, that’s no surprise really either since the Snapdragon 888 is the main flagship chipset of the year and was used by the Samsung Galaxy S21 range in some regions.
That said, not so long ago the same source suggested that the Z Fold 3 might have a ‘top secret’ chipset that would be something other than the Snapdragon 888 or Exynos 2100 (the latter of which being another likely candidate). So we’d take this with a pinch of salt too, but the 888 would always have been our best guess.
We might be waiting a little while until we know the details of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 for sure – rumors suggest it’s landing in July – but stay tuned to TechRadar for all the credible leaks and rumors until then.
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