Samsung reportedly makes change to its Galaxy roadmap to avoid cannibalizing its next flagship phone

There is potentially some bad news for fans of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip hoping that that the sequel would be unveiled during the next Unpacked event. According to SamMobile, the latest news is that the Galaxy Z Flip 2 will not be part of the event during which the manufacturer’s next flagship series is expected to be announced. That would include the Samsung Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

Korean publication The Elec says that you shouldn’t expect to see the pocketable and foldable phone introduced at all during the first quarter of 2021 which covers the three months from January through March. If Samsung does indeed decide not to launch the Galaxy Z Flip 2 at the same time as the Galaxy S21 family, it is possible that the company is concerned about cannibalizing its 2021 flagship models. The Galaxy S21 line carries more importance next year if Sammy drops the Galaxy Note series as seems likely according to the most recent reports.

Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold line. which uses a foldable display to convert a smartphone into a tablet, the Galaxy Z Flip, when closed, fits easily into a pocket and then flips open to become a large-screened smartphone. The original model was released on Valentine’s Day (February 14th) this year with a 5G version released on August 7th. The latter variant of the Flip featured a small number of upgrades; the most important change was replacing the Snapdragon 855+ chipset used on the 4G LTE-only variant with the Snapdragon 865+ SoC found inside the 5G enabled model. Tht integrated circuit is currently the most powerful smartphone processor designed by Qualcomm until the 5nm Snapdragon 875 is released early next year. The 5nm Snapdragon 875 chipset is expected to power the Galaxy S21 phones.

If The Elec is correct, the earliest we will see the Galaxy Z Flip 2 will be April when the second quarter of the year begins. But if Samsung really wants to keep enough space between the Galaxy S21 and the Galaxy Z Flip 2, we might have to wait longer, perhaps until next August (which would be a year after the release of the Galaxy Flip 5G) or even later before we see Samsung’s next connected flip phone hit the market.