SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - South Koreans are snapping up Samsung Electronics’ latest foldable phones at a blistering pace of 140 units per minute, shattering a seven-year pre-order record and proving that the foldable form factor has officially shed its novelty status to become a mainstream must-have.
Over a seven-day pre-order window that wrapped up on Monday, the tech giant racked up a staggering 1.44 million domestic sales for its Galaxy Z8 series, comprising the Z Fold8, Z Fold8 Ultra, and Z Flip8.
This blowout performance marks the highest pre-order volume in the entire history of the Galaxy franchise, finally dethroning the venerable Galaxy Note 10, which moved 1.38 million units over 11 days back in August 2019. The new foldables also easily eclipsed the early year momentum of the Galaxy S26 series, which saw 1.35 million pre-orders, and blew past the 1.04 million mark set by last year's Z Fold7 and Z Flip7.
The undisputed heavyweight champion of this lineup is the Galaxy Z Fold8, which single-handedly drove the frenzy by accounting for 70 percent of all pre-orders.
Samsung hit the sweet spot for content junkies by introducing a new "passport-like" 4:3 aspect ratio on its 7.6-inch main screen, a strategic pivot from the taller, narrower screens of previous generations that dramatically reduces black bars during video playback.
Paired with a 5.5-inch cover screen, the device also tackles the foldable market's most notorious Achilles' heel: the screen crease.
By deploying a first-of-its-kind "Flex Titanium" technology—which fuses a titanium alloy film with a reinforced titanium plate—Samsung claims to have virtually ironed out the fold while significantly boosting the device's overall durability.
This design overhaul is not just winning over tech purists; it's aggressively reshaping Samsung's demographic reach.
The company attributed the series' runaway success to surging interest from Millennials and Gen Z, alongside a massive influx of female customers. Shoppers in their teens to 30s made up a full 50 percent of all pre-orders on Samsung.com, and the number of young female buyers springing for the Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra more than doubled compared to its predecessor.
Industry watchers suggest that the wider, more proportional 4:3 screen ratio and sleek design cues successfully courted a female demographic that previously skewed away from the bulkier Fold lineup. Aesthetically, consumers gravitated toward Cream and Graphite for the standard Fold8, while Ultra buyers favored Graphite and Violet Shadow. Flip8 fans leaned into Pink and Cream, with Samsung-exclusive shades like Pistachio and Mint also driving heavy online traffic.
Beneath the hardware appeal, Samsung orchestrated a masterclass in aggressive promotional bundling to seal the deal amid a tough global economic climate.
Staring down widespread "chipflation," the company maintained competitive pricing and dangled irresistible perks, most notably a "Double Storage" upgrade that bumped 256GB buyers up to 512GB at no extra cost. When paired with the enhanced "New Galaxy AI Subscription Club," the incentives became too good to pass up—one in two customers buying unlocked models on Samsung.com signed up for the service, which guarantees up to 50 percent of the 512GB model's residual value upon trade-in after one year.
The company also rolled out a tailored "Flip Youth Subscription" for Z Flip8 buyers, bundling the trade-in guarantee with language learning app vouchers. With early activations kicking off Tuesday for domestic pre-order customers, Samsung is now preparing to take this momentum global, with the Z8 series slated for a rolling release across more than 100 countries starting August 7.
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