The long-rumoured Samsung Galaxy X foldable smartphone could be launching to the public as soon as 2018, according to a new report.
It’s no secret that Samsung might be working on a foldable smartphone; rumours of such a device have been circulating for years. In fact, Samsung has even debuted concepts of foldable displays to showcase what we might expect from the future of smartphones.
But a new report from Business Korea says that Samsung is readying an actual device with a foldable screen, and that it could be released “as early as next year”. The report notes that the handset is likely to be named ‘Galaxy X’ too, which isn’t a major surprise – we’d already heard that branding mooted a number of times previously.
The idea behind the concept is to create a 2-in-1 device that serves to function as both a smartphone and a tablet – courtesy of a screen-folding mechanism. The hope is that it will capture the attention of consumers in the same way 2-in-1 tablet laptops re-ignited the personal computing market and sparked significant growth.
The great difficulty is actually developing a screen that can fold in such a way. Samsung has spent lots of time and money on flexible OLED screens, and has spear-headed a number of innovative display designs – including the new Infinity Display on the Galaxy S8.
The company benefits from the fact that Samsung’s screen-making subsidiary Samsung Display is the chief global manufacturer of phone-sized OLED panels, so it’s better placed than many rivals to develop a folding handset.
Of course, Samsung is remaining coy about all future smartphone prospects, so we shouldn’t read too much into this latest report. Until we hear official word from Samsung on an exact Galaxy X release date, we’ll have to take all rumours with a pinch of salt for now.
