Samsung has three foldables now — and a broken inner screen costs more than a new phone

Samsung has had a busy year: the Galaxy S26 family in March, then three foldables in August. If you're shopping, here's what's out, what it costs, and the number we wish more people saw before they bought.

The Galaxy S26 line

Announced in February, on sale since 11 March:

• Galaxy S26 — $899.99, 6.3-inch screen, 4,300 mAh battery
• Galaxy S26+ — $1,099.99, 6.7-inch, 4,900 mAh
• Galaxy S26 Ultra — $1,299.99, 6.9-inch, 5,000 mAh

All three start at 256GB — the 128GB tier is gone, same as Apple. All three are IP68, and all three get seven years of security updates.

That last point is the one we'd underline. Seven years of updates is the best argument going for buying a good used Galaxy and keeping it running rather than replacing it. A two-year-old S24 still has years of support left in it.

One small thing that catches S Pen users out: the S26 Ultra's pen still has no Bluetooth, so the remote-shutter and gesture features are gone for a second year. Samsung's reasoning is that almost nobody used them. If you were one of the people who did, that's worth knowing before you upgrade.

Three foldables, not two

Since 7 August there are three:

• Galaxy Z Flip8 — $1,199.99, the flip-style one
• Galaxy Z Fold8 — $1,899.99, the book-style one
• Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra — $2,099.99, the new top model

The number to look at before you buy

Samsung publishes its own out-of-warranty repair prices, and the inner screens went up sharply this generation:

• Z Fold8 Ultra inner screen — $639
• Z Fold8 inner screen — $579
• Z Flip8 inner screen — $359

Last year those were $449 for the Fold7 and $249 for the Flip7. A broken inner screen on a Fold8 Ultra now costs more than a perfectly good midrange phone.

The outer screens are far cheaper — roughly $129 to $149 — because they're ordinary flat glass. It's the folding panel that's expensive, and it's the folding panel people break.

We're not telling you this to talk you out of a foldable. We're telling you because knowing it changes what you do: use the case, and think hard about whether the protection plan is worth it on this particular phone. On most phones we'd shrug. On a foldable the math is different.

The rating that isn't what you think

Samsung's foldables are rated IP48. People read that as "same as IP68, basically" and it isn't.

The 8 is the water half, and it's genuinely good. The 4 is the dust half, and it only means the phone keeps out objects 1mm and larger. That's a paperclip. It is not sand, not pocket lint, and not the grit on a beach or a job site.

iFixit tested this on a Fold8 and found particles as fine as 0.04mm — twenty-five times smaller than the rating covers — packed into the hinge. After their dust testing the hinge started grinding audibly and the phone stopped opening properly.

Here's the part that surprises people: a $299 Moto G Power is IP68 and IP69. A three-hundred-dollar phone is better sealed against dust than a two-thousand-dollar folding one. That's not a knock on Samsung — it's just what a hinge costs you physically.

Practical advice, and it's boring: keep it out of sandy and dusty places, don't put it in a pocket with keys and coins, and don't blow compressed air into the hinge — that drives grit further in.

What we can and can't do

We repair Samsung phones every day — screens with the frame, batteries, charging boards, back glass. Foldable inner screens are the exception: they're ordered in, they take longer, and they need a deposit. We'll be straight with you about the cost before anything starts, because on a foldable the repair price is a real decision rather than a formality.

If you're deciding between fixing and replacing, bring it in. Sometimes the answer is that it isn't worth it, and we'd rather tell you that than take your money.