As expected, Samsung’s first smartphone with a foldable display is called the Samsung Galaxy Fold. At first glance, it looks like a small tablet… that you can fold in half and use as a smartphone.
Folded in half, you can use a 4.6 inch touchscreen display (with very large top and bottom bezels). Unfolded, it’s a tablet with a 7.3 inch “InfinityFlex” display.
It’s not the first folding phone, but it looks a heck of a lot less wonky than the Royole FlexPai, with less of a visible crease when the phone is unfolded. Samsung describes the Fold as a “one of a kind, luxury device,” though… so it’s not cheap: prices will start at $1980 and it will be available in 4G LTE and 5G versions.
Samsung is also introducing new software including support for three-app multitasking on the tablet screen, and support for “App Continuinity,” which lets you switch seamless switch between screens — you can start using an app on the small smartphone screen, open the tablet, and pick up where you left off.
Powering the phone is an unspecified 7nm processor, 12GB of RAM, and 512GB of UFS 3.0 storage (but no microSD card slot).
There are two batteries spread across the two sides of the Fold, for a total of 4,380 mAh of capacity.
The Galaxy Fold also has six cameras — three on the back, two on the inside, and one front-facing camera
Samsung put a fingerprint sensor on the side of the phone, where you should be able to reach it from any view.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold will be available in black, silver, green, or blue color options, and there are multiple color options for the hinge as well.
While Samsung hasn’t revealed all the specs for the Galaxy Fold yet, here’s what we know so far:
- 7.3 inch QXGA Dynamic AMOLED tablet display with 4.2:3 aspect ratio
- 4.6 inch HD+ Super AMOLED display with 21:9 aspect ratio
- 7nm, 64-bit octa-core processor
- 12GB LPDDR4X RAM
- 512GB UFS 3.0 storage
- 4,380 mAh battery
- Wired and wireless fast charging support
- Android 9.0 Pie
As for the camera’s, there’s a lot of them, so let’s break them down into sections.
Rear cameras
- 12MP wideangle camera with dual-pixel autofocus, optical image stabilization, F1.5/F2.4 aperture
- 16MP ultra wide camera with F2.2 aperture
- 12MP telephoto lens with 2X optical zoom, PDAF, OIS, and F2.4 aperture
Front cameras
- 10MP F2.2 camera
- 8MP depth camera with F1.9 aperture
Cover camera
- 10MP F2.2 selfie camera
This means that Samsung is making a 4.6″ 21:9 hd+ display. Mini flagship anyone?
(gulp) Based on those screenshots it doesn’t look like there’s a headphone jack on this device… Kind of a deal breaker for me if I were to consider it especially if the idea is to use it more like a tablet as well… It’s otherwise a very cool device though.
Press shots are great, but the best way to see how in-line and smooth that screen will be is by seeing how it reflects light:
https://i.imgur.com/5xgLWBR.jpg
Yeah… like the good old resistive screens. Which is understandable, this needs to be flexible, so up side: probably won’t crack. Down side: you’ll definitely see that indent at the fold.
Also I’m surprised they didn’t demo it as a Communicator, full keyboard on the half screen and windowed apps on the top. Kinda obvious usecase IMHO.
I thought of the same thing!
Then I realised this was Samsung, and you cannot rely on “Common Sense” because it isn’t that common. I don’t think Apple will do a foldable device though, and I don’t think these will be a big success, at least not for a couple years and definitely not in their current form.
$2 grand, and if you’re very, very lucky, maybe 2 years of updates. But you won’t really know until they finally tell you you’re cut off.
Somehow, I feel that the fold point will be the common place cracks occur after dropping.
My first thought was how good is the warranty.
It’s supposed to be flexible, so I don’t think it will crack at all from any height. But it will probably scratch like hell.
That price tag tho. Can justify 1.5k by say it’s a 1k phone and $500 tablet in one device but 2k is just too much.