Samsung Announces The Galaxy Fold: The First Folding Display Smartphone
by Andrei Frumusanu on February 20, 2019 2:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Samsung
- Smartphones
Samsung has unveiled its first ever folding smartphone - the Galaxy Fold.
Today’s at Samsung’s Unpacked launch event in San Francisco, alongside the much awaited Galaxy S10 line-up of phones, the company has revealed its first ever folding smartphone.
| Samsung Galaxy Fold | |
| Galaxy Fold | |
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 1x Kryo 485 (CA76) @ 2.84GHz 3x Kryo 485 (CA76) @ 2.42GHz 4x Kryo 485 (CA55) @ 1.80GHz Adreno 640 |
| Display | Main Display: 7.3" 2048 x 1536 Foldable Dynamic AMOLED (4.2:3) Cover display: 4.6" 1680 x 720 Super AMOLED (21:9) |
| Dimensions | (Thick) |
| RAM | 12GB LPDDR4X |
| NAND | 512GB UFS3.0 |
| Battery | 4380mAh (16.86Wh) |
| Front Camera | Cover Camera: 10MP f/2.2 "Selfie camera" Front camera: 10MP f/1.9 4K video recording Front camera: 8MP, f/2.2 Dual Pixel PDAF "Live focus" |
| Primary Rear Camera | 77° Regular Angle 12MP 1.4µm Dual Pixel PDAF Tri-stack CMOS Sensor (Embedded DRAM), 4K60, 1080p240, 720p960 high-speed recording Adjustable aperture f/1.5 or f/2.4, OIS, auto HDR, LED flash |
| Secondary Rear Camera | 123° Wide Angle 16MP 1.0µm f/2.2 |
| Tertiary Rear Camera | 45° / Telephoto lens 2x zoom 12MP 1.0µm f/2.4, OIS |
| SIM Size | (Maybe?) |
| Wireless | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 MU-MIMO, BT 5.0 LE, NFC, GPS/Glonass/Galileo/BDS |
| Connectivity | USB Type-C |
| Features | (It Folds) |
| Launch OS | Android 9.0 |
| Launch Price | $1980 / 2000€ |
The Galaxy Fold includes the same high-performance innards as the Galaxy S10.
The key feature of the phone is its dual-screen design: a 4.6” cover display, and a foldable 7.3” main screen. Samsung has put a lot of engineering into the folding design, especially on the mechanical hinge which had to be extremely durable in its implementation.
Samsung’s software is said to be optimised for seamless application switching between the cover display and the main foldable display. Samsung further demonstrated three-way app multi-tasking, taking advantage of the larger screen.
In the presentation event, the phone looked relatively rough in its design, seemingly twice as thick as a regular phone when folded. So it's not too surprising then that Samsung is not officially disclosing the dimensions of the phone at this time.
Samsung’s pricing for the novelty phone is also quite shocking, coming in at $1980/2000€.
Source: Samsung
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brakdoo - Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - link
5g? Dimensions?Ryan Smith - Thursday, February 21, 2019 - link
The dimensions are not being disclosed at this time.III-V - Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - link
"This story is breaking news, we'll update as the event... UNFOLDS!"You guys have too much fun sometimes :D
jjj - Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - link
I am shocked by how much it syx, this kind of product makes me want to find a better planet.And the name is perfect, Samsung just gives up on product design.
When folded has a 4.58 inch small display and big bezels - also has 1 selfie cam.
It's also thick and because it is thick they had to reduce the width so you can hold it. It's a brick with a tiny display for a terrible phone.
Reduced width results in a smaller display for the large one.
And the big screen has a large cutout for 2 selfie cams and whatever other sensors. This cutout is so so stupid, they had no need for it, not even if they wanted a cam (that they do not need), they could have used a popup and with that, they could have removed the one for the small screen and save a buck.
The big display can't fold on itself flat, the curvature needs a bit of a radius so when folded, the device is thicker on one side and thinner on the other.
And ofc the big screen folds the wrong way, likely because they could nto figure out a cover material that can take the abuse.
And priced at 1980$
This thing is an avalanche of stupid compromises. How in the name of everything, do these people keep their jobs? They are worst than zero at their jobs.
Foldables are a gigantic opportunity and they c... all over it
Do it right and sell tens of millions per quarter not 15k. This is not their iPhone moment, they will never have and iPhone moment if this disaster is shown in public. You can't make a good product ,ever, if you think that this one is not insane.
porcupineLTD - Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - link
I agree with you except for one thing... I think it will sell quite well, people only care about gimmicks, that is why we have notched-underdisplay-popup-headphonejackless-pentalens-faceID-reversewireless-animoji phones selling well and last year's S9 (witch had the best design that was much better than a retarded hole in the screen) sold terribly because it had a little bezel and no gimmick.HardwareDufus - Thursday, February 21, 2019 - link
This is ver 1.0 of a commercial available foldable phone that becomes a very useable 4x3 tablet. (The 4.58 screen was perfect for the iPhone. ;p I jest.)I think for an initial product lunch in kind of a new category.....it's quite a good attempt. ver 2.0 will be better
mkozakewich - Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - link
It's hardly the world's first folding phone. The ZTE Axon M:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX31xYRl-II
The Galaxy Fold seems to be the world's first phone with a folding OLED display, but we've had a bunch of other two-screen clamshells before.
hlm - Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - link
Royole had an AMOLED foldable phone at CES 2019 https://www.royole.com/flexpaiAs Engadget wrote about the Royole Flexpai, "Yes, this is a real product that you can buy right now. Yes, this basically unknown company beat Samsung to market with a foldable smartphone. And yes, it actually works."
But what US phone carrier sells it?
Tchamber - Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - link
If you recall, Chinese businessmen stole Samsung's flexible screen tech. This company is out of China... Do the math.hlm - Thursday, February 21, 2019 - link
Do what math? We're just stating the fact that Samsung is not first with a foldable phone. Do you have an article I can read about the businessmen that stole this technology from Samsung? I'd like to read it.