Expert: Only 4% of Russians to afford new Samsung Galaxy Fold

MOSCOW, Feb 21 (PRIME) -- Only 4% of Russians will be able to afford Samsung’s new foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold, which will be available in the country in April–June and will cost U.S. $1,980 in the U.S., Dmitry Ryabinin, head of expert portal Mail.Ru Hi-Tech, told PRIME on Thursday.

“Evidently, the smartphone price is seriously beyond comfortable parameters for the absolute majority of Russians, even considering loan programs and other motivations, like trade-in. The device is only for the elect …replacement of a broken foldable screen will cost tens of thousands of rubles,” Ryabinin said.

The expert thinks the device will cost some 150,000 rubles in Russia, which is tens times more than the price of an average smartphone.

The first lot of the smartphones to be dispatched to Russia in the next few months will amount to only 5,000. “No wonder, the Fold is not for everybody, but mainly to demonstrate technologies, not for massive sale. It’s important for Samsung to declare they’ve been the first to do it,” Ryabinin said.

(65.8568 rubles – U.S. $1)

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