Samsung just announced a phone that can fold in half and will launch sometime early next year. The company has long talked about its plans to try to launch a foldable smartphone. Google also announced that Android now officially supports foldable devices.
Samsung just announced a phone that can fold in half.
It’s a compelling form factor that may one day allow us to carry phones that fit snugly in our pockets, but that can then be unfolded to reveal a larger screen, like a tablet.
The phone, which doesn’t have a final name or design yet, uses a new display technology Samsung calls the Infinity Flex Display.
The phone, which Samsung says is launching soon, was finally revealed during the Samsung Developer Conference 2018 Opening Keynote on Wednesday. The company’s head of mobile, DJ Koh, has been teasing this sort of device for several years, and most recently spoke with CNBC about it in Sept.
Samsung won’t be the only one to release a foldable phone.
Google on Wednesday said that Android now officially supports foldable devices. While Samsung is one of its partners that will release a product first, it’s likely other companies will quickly follow with similar products.
« You can think of the device as both a phone and a tablet, » Google Android’s vice president of engineering Dave Burke said during the Android Dev Summit on Thursday, according to prepared remarks sent to CNBC. « You can simply unfold the device to get a larger tablet-sized screen. As you unfold, the app seamlessly transfers to the bigger screen without missing a beat. »
