After going through a slight redesign, the Samsung Galaxy Fold is set to launch soon. It’s the company’s first smartphone with a foldable display, allowing you to use a single device either as a phone or tablet.
But according to Bloomberg, Samsung’s next foldable may be something a little different.
Instead of a phone-shaped device that unfolded to reveal a tablet-sized screen, the new phone is said to feature a 6.7 inch display and a clamshell-style design that allows you to fold the phone so that it “shrinks to a pocketable square.”
Among other things, Bloomberg says the new design will allow Samsung to offer a phone with fancy features (like a foldable display) without charging astronomical prices (the Galaxy Fold costs nearly $2000).
I can see the appeal of this approach: smartphone display sizes have crept upward in recent years, blurring the lines between a big phone and a small tablet. Meanwhile, device makers have slimmed display bezels about as much as they could, which means that if you want a large-screen device that’s still pocket-sized, you may have to look for other ways to reduce the size… like offering foldable designs.
But the success or failure of this approach will likely depend on just how much of a premium Samsung (or other phone makers) charge for clamshell-style foldables.
While the Samsung Galaxy Fold offers new ways to use a phone/tablet hybrid thanks to variable display sizes, it sounds like this clamshell-style phone will really just be a phone when you use it and a… smaller thing when you’re not using it. I might be willing to pay a few bucks extra for that if the crease in the display isn’t too visible. But I’m not sure I’d spend hundreds of dollars for the folding feature.
This has me pining for my old kyocera 7135. I’m intrigued to see how it comes out.
I was thinking more along the lines as a spiritual successor to the Samsung E700.
Maybe the phone flips out 180′ to have 21:9 screen.
And can fold partial-ways (maybe 120′) to fold against your face during a call.
Then fold down to 0′ to become a small-thicker square, with a little LED notification on the top.
Perhaps the top would also have a small mirror, and the bottom chin would stick out slightly, so that the main camera can be used to take Selfies when the phone is “closed”. But then it would mean you wouldn’t have any rear camera. If you want a rear camera, the Body Type would have to change to something resembling the Huawei Mate Flip…. but then, the screen is vulnerable. But then again the phone will be vulnerable because of the folding mechanism, so it makes little sense to compromise on major features for slight increase of durability. Ah stuff it, people should just stick to Slab/Candybar shaped phones like the ZTE Axon7 (with perhaps a Removable Battery) so that they actually last for a longtime.