Samsung Galaxy Z Flip FE could miss out on Flip 7 launch

Exynos 2500 causing trouble

Samsung is reportedly experiencing production woes related to the Galaxy Z Flip FE processor, meaning its first affordable foldable phone could miss its initial launch window.

South Korean website The Bell has issued a report claiming that Samsung is continuing to struggle to produce enough of its new flagship chip, the Exynos 2500.

These production difficulties had already done for the company’s initial plans to feature the chip in global Samsung Galaxy S25 models, with the Snapdragon 8 Elite instead being used across the board.

Now, with those production woes continuing, Samsung’s first affordable foldable phone may be affected.

Samsung Flips its foldable plans

According to the report, with chip yields now improving, Samsung was hoping to use its new Exynos 2500 chip in the forthcoming successor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6.

Even that plan seems to have been too ambitious given the increasing prominence of Samsung’s foldable range. Now the claim is that it’ll be the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip FE that runs on Samsung’s home-brewed processor, not the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7.

With these chip production woes in mind, it seems the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip FE won’t be launching alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 7 in July after all.

Rather, Samsung’s affordable foldable debut will reportedly take place “several months later” (via machine translation).

Potential bad news for Galaxy S26 fans

One other interesting related snippet of information to emerge from this is that Samsung is working on the Exynos 2600 in parallel with the Exynos 2500.

The intention, it seems, is to have the new chip ready in time for the Samsung Galaxy S26 early next year. If true, it would signal a regrettable return to the split chip offering of previous Galaxy S phones.

This two-tiered provision generally sees the US and China getting faster and more efficient Galaxy phones running on Qualcomm’s invariably superior chips, while the rest of us make do with Samsung’s inferior offerings.

Given how brilliant the Exynos 8 Elite has been so far this year, Qualcomm clearly isn’t resting on its laurels. Here’s hoping Samsung has made further progress in closing that performance gap.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6

Rating of this product is 3.5 out of 5
Read our review
Price When Reviewed: From £1,049 | Model reviewed £1,149
Best Prices Today: £749 at AO | £849 at Currys | £849 at very.co.uk