Samsung to produce gold colored Galaxy Z Fold 2

Samsung Electronics plans to launch an ultra-premium gold colored Galaxy Z Fold 2 in China.

It will be the thirteenth model in its co-brand with local carrier China Telecom, people familiar with the matter said. The brand, called 心系天下 in Chinese, which means “high people worrying about the world”, was first launched in 2008 by the two companies.

Samsung launched the W20 model, an upgraded version of Galaxy Fold 5G, last year. It had Snapdragon 855 Plus and a different internal architecture compared to the Galaxy Fold 5G. 

W20 was white and cost around US$1,000 more than the original Galaxy Fold.

The China-only W21 gold version will have around 30,000 units produced. The code name for the model was Victory, unlike the F2 used for the original Galaxy Z Fold 2 and the Thome Browne edition.

The code name Victory was given by Samsung to mark its lead over local rival Huawei, a person familiar with the matter said. Chinese customers love gold color and Chinese companies aren’t able to produce such a foldable smartphone model, which is a victory for the South Korean tech giant, they said.

Rival Huawei shipped 240 million smartphones in 2019 and is expected to move 190 million units this year, according to Strategy Analytics.

Meanwhile, Samsung has had a market share of around 1% in China since 2017, from the rise of local companies.