Samsung just held its Galaxy Unpacked event revealing the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4. Undoubtedly, these devices will be some of the most important releases this year, as they will push the foldable smartphone genre forward. While there are plenty of new innovations and design improvements on the surface, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 has a vital upgrade internally. For the first time since the Galaxy Z Fold line's inception, the company has introduced a new hinge system.

When Samsung first released the Galaxy Fold series, it was innovative but not without its issues. The phones were like no other, requiring complicated moving parts, increasing the chance of failure. Despite the company's attention to detail, problems inevitably popped up, requiring them to go back to the drawing board and create new solutions for the real world. After four iterations, Samsung has gotten to a place where it can comfortably and confidently advance the technology even further.

The first three generations of the Galaxy Z Fold used a gear-based hinge construction. But because of this gear system, the phone's hinge would remain essential but bulky. For the Galaxy Z Fold 4, Samsung has replaced the hinge system with a new one. Rather than utilize gears with interlocking teeth, Samsung's new hinge design brings a "rotational" effect using linear motion. This makes it more compact and lightweight. Despite its more compact design, Samsung didn't compromise on durability, with the new hinge system being just as strong as the old one. You can see a more detailed explanation in the announcement, timestamped below.

The hinge is one of the most vital parts of the Galaxy Z Fold smartphone, allowing the phone to fold and unfold hundreds of times a day. Samsung's own testing rates the hinge for 200,000 folds, while real-world testing has found that it can far exceed that number, easily clearing 400,000 folds. Let's hope that the new mechanism is without issue and that it will only add to the legacy of the Galaxy Fold line.

We've reached out to Samsung for clarification on whether this new hinge is present on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 too. The launch announcement mentions a smaller hinge on this device too, but falls short of explaining how this size decrease was achieved. So we are not sure whether the two foldables share the same hinge internals for this generation. For what it is worth, both the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 shared their hinge mechanism.