After teasing its release for a couple of weeks now, along with several leaks prior to the Unpacked event earlier today, Samsung has officially unveiled its latest iteration of foldable phone – the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G.

While the South Korean firm’s family of foldables is small at this stage, the company has been consistent in terms of debuting a new flagship device in this category each year. Having reviewed the Fold2 during the early months of lockdown and having mixed reactions to the device, we now have the Fold3 5G to inspect and dissect.

A fully fledged review is still in the offing, so for now, we need to take a look at the specifications between the predecessor and the new kid on the block.

So what has Samsung done this time around? Well as we mentioned in our first impressions piece, the Fold3 has not received as much re-engineering as the Fold2 did.

As such, this new device tightens a few things up and refreshes some key specifications to make the Fold3 a more tempting offering.

To that end the screen real estate is much the same, as is the overall design and hinge that holds the experience together. A notable change is the IPX8 water resistance and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus-coated display.

This should improve the overall ruggedness and we’re particularly interested to see how the Corning technology holds up over time with the newly created S Pen stylus for the Fold3 also being revealed today.

Internally an up to fate processor from Qualcomm is present, along support for 5G, which the previous model boasted. The front facing selfie camera features a new housing though, with an under-the-display 4MP option on offer that is designed to more seamless blend with the interface when making use of the 7.6″ screen real estate.

The battery is a little less at 4 400mAh, which should not dent battery performance and the rest of the specifications are about the same across both models.

Perhaps the most crucial element is price, with the Fold3 costing a full R10k less than its predecessor did at local launch, with a recommended price tag of R39 999 on the Galaxy Z Fold3. That’s still a mightily expensive phone, but seeing as some Galaxy S and iPhone 12 Pro models can reach similar figures, perhaps there is appetite for such a device.