The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold phones are arguably the best foldable devices on the market. Yet the Galaxy Z Flip phones are by far the most popular.

Samsung is one of the key players in the foldable segment of the smartphone market. Although it wasn't the first to launch a foldable phone, Samsung is taking foldables to the masses, acquiring most of the global sales market share.

But with two separate lines of folding devices—the Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold series—there's a big difference in sales figures. Its clamshell Galaxy Z Flip series is far more popular than the Galaxy Z Fold lineup. Here's why.

Samsung has not been vocal about its foldable sales, but recently the company's head Dr. TM Roh, provided a sneak peek. In a blog post on the Samsung website, Ron said the industry shipped 10 million foldable phones in 2021.

Although he didn't reveal how many the company sold in 2021, he said of all its foldable sales, 70% were the flip style. That means the Galaxy Z Flip series is the one taking foldables to the mainstream.

Samsung controls the market, according to a Counterpoint Research report, which estimated that Samsung accounted for 62% of the foldable market in the first half of 2022. The same report pegged the total foldable sales at nine million in 2021.

So why is the Flip series proving so popular?

Price plays an important factor in determining whether someone will buy a device or not. It's hard to unbundle price considerations in purchasing decisions. The lower price is the first apparent reason why the Galaxy Z Flip series sells more than the Z Fold series.

Looking at Samsung's 2022 foldable lineup, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 starts at $999 (with 128GB ROM), while the Z Fold 4 starts at $1,799 for 256GB of internal storage. A 256GB Galaxy Z Flip 4 variant goes for $1059, which is still $740 cheaper.

If you were to save $740 on a smartphone purchase, that's a steal. Therefore, many are taking advantage of this and nabbing the Galaxy Z Flip instead. But price is not the only difference. Of course, there are more differences between the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4.

The Galaxy Z Flip also enjoys more love from users for its portable nature. Despite its folding chops, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is lighter and more compact, weighing 6.60 oz, even lighter than Samsung's high-end Galaxy S22 Ultra, one of the best Android phones you can get.

The clamshell design also helps as you can fold the device in half if you don't have a deeper pocket, assuming you have enough breadth. On the other hand, the Galaxy Z Fold series can be painful to carry with its massive footprint. Its ability to fold in half doesn't help as much in portability as it makes the device feel like two phones placed on top of each other.

Samsung's Galaxy Fold series aims to become two things. The first target is to offer the best tablet experience, and, secondly, to allow the user to switch to a typical smartphone form factor whenever you don't need all of that 7-inch plus screen.

The problem is that the Android tablet experience sucks. While that continues to be the case, more people will continue to buy the Galaxy Z Flip series. Another advantage to the Flip is every developer has optimized their app to look and perform better on smartphones. Many apps don't work well on Android tablets.

On the bright side for the Galaxy Z Fold series camp, Google is finally showing efforts to improve the Android tablet experience, but we'll wait and see how that turns out.

The Galaxy Z Flip series offers the usual smartphone form factor, which also makes it easy to woo new users. You're getting a typical smartphone, but with folding ability on top. When moving from other smartphones to the Z Flip series, there's less or no friction.

If you're planning to buy a folding phone, a clamshell-design folding phone is what you should consider first, like the Galaxy Z Flip 4 or Motorola Moto Razr 2022. Clamshell-design foldable phones are cheaper and a good entry point if you want to thoroughly test the waters before embracing the foldable movement with more expensive options like Samsung's Z Fold 4 or Oppo's Find N.

Alvin Wanjala is a freelance consumer technology writer. Outside work, he dabs into fitness and watching football while pursuing a second degree.

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