Folding smartphones hinge on the success of the Samsung GalaxyFold
It seems everyone is working on foldingsmartphones right now, but Samsung has just shown its hand at the
Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco with the Galaxy Fold. Previously, we
only got a teasing glimpse of this fabled device at the Samsung Developer
Conference. Now we have a better idea what the Samsung Galaxy Fold is all about.
Featuring an Infinity
Flex display, the Samsung Galaxy Fold goes from a 4.6-inch display for phone
mode and folds out to reveal a separate 7.3-inch display on the inside. It’s
designed to be a comfortable device to hold one-handed. The 7.3-inch Infinity
Flex display has a resolution of 2,152 × 1,536 pixels, while the smaller
4.6-inch display has a resolution of 1,960 × 840 pixels.
A sophisticated hinge
system with multiple interlocking gears is hidden inside the spine. The Samsung
Galaxy Fold also has a 7nm processor and 12GB of RAM. There’s 512GB of
universal flash storage, so it can read data twice as fast as other
smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy Fold actually has two batteries inside, one in
each side of the device, to get around the problem of having to have a folding
battery. The battery is rated at 4,380mAh.
Samsung
worked with Google and the Android developer community to tailor apps like
WhatsApp and Microsoft Office, YouTube.
The
interior screen is so big it can be used for three-app multitasking. You can
watch a video, chat about it, and browse options on the web all at the same
time. Samsung showed this off with YouTube running on the left, a WhatsApp chat
window at the top right, and a web browser at the bottom right.
The displays work together for a seamless
experience thanks to something Samsung calls app continuity, so you can switch
between screens without missing a beat. It looks like a smooth transition with
Google Maps and Netflix shown in the demonstration.
“The Galaxy
Fold is a device unlike any that’s come before it,” said Justin Denison, Samsung’s
senior vice president of mobile marketing. “It’s a versatile smartphone,
tablet, and camera.”
There are actually six cameras in the
Samsung Galaxy Fold. Three on the back make up the main camera, combining a
wide, ultrawide, and telephoto lens. There’s also a dual front camera, which
seems to be housed in a notch at the top right of the Infinity Flex display,
and there’s a single cover camera as well.
The Samsung
Galaxy Fold comes in four colors: Cosmic Black, Space Silver, Martian Green, or
Astral Blue, and you can apparently customize the color of the spine.
Lots of
questions remain about folding phones, not least of which is whether the
general public actually wants to buy them. The Samsung Galaxy Fold is sure to
provide some early answers.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
The Samsung
Galaxy Fold will come in LTE and 5G versions and it will launch on April
