Samsung announced a major new phone at an app developers’ conference in San Francisco last week – and it’s finally the foldable smartphone we’ve all been waiting for.
Samsung’s new foldable smartphone has a screen that can fold in the middle – and will let you use up to three apps simultaneously – and when we say fold, not like the previous clamshell devices such as the classic Motorola Razr, nor the hinged, two-screen variety either. The unnamed Samsung model has screens that bend like a sheet of paper.
At the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco on November 7-8, the company revealed the device that’s clearly still in development, but combines the best of both worlds when it comes to regular-sized touchscreen phones and their larger siblings, aka tablets.
During the keynote, Justin Denison, SVP of mobile product marketing, presented a “disguised” device, saying the company did not want to reveal the entire look yet.
However, viewers were able to get a quick glimpse of a rather thick-looking phone that folds out to become a fully-fledged tablet, without any sign of hinge or crease on the screen’s folding axis.
It’s not the first time that the company has mentioned the device. Speaking with CNBC earlier in the year, IT and mobile communications division CEO DJ Koh noted that more details would be revealed – although we’ll all have to keep waiting for in-depth specifications, and even information such as a name, release date and price.
Samsung did not reveal when the phone may come out, but experts expect the phone will hit the markets in the first half of 2019.
China’s Huawei has also announced plans to present a new foldable smartphone in mid-2019, whereas another China-based company, Royole, has already unveiled a foldable phone priced at US$1,300, which will go on sale in December.
