Foldable phones from Samsung, Huawei, Royale, and others are getting a lot of attention. But are they real, and should you buy one?
Other than 5G, foldable phones are the products gathering the most attention at MWC Barcelona this year. People are lining up to see the Samsung Galaxy Fold and the Huawei Mate X, even though each company only has a couple of prototypes, carefully displayed behind glass, so attendees can’t even touch them. Several other vendors have phones, prototypes, and alternative ideas. What stands out to me is that they take very different approaches to design, technology, use cases, and price points. And that’s pretty exciting—in an era where we complain that all phones look alike, that’s not true with the foldable devices. Samsung Galaxy Fold
SEE ALSO: Deals: Dell XPS 8930 Desktop, Apple iPads, Instant Pot
Samsung got a lot of attention last week for its Galaxy Fold, which it announced along with its new S10 series. All of the S10 phones, including the 5G model, were well represented on the show floor at MWC, but Fold was only viewable under glass.
This device actually has two separate screens. The front of the phone looks pretty much like any other Android phone (though it’s a bit thicker), with a 4.6-inch 1,960 by 840 display. It’s a little smaller than Samsung has us used to, but certainly quite useful. When you open it up, you unfold the larger 7.3-inch 2,152 by 1,536 display.
The fold has six cameras—three on the back (regular, zoom, and wide-angle), two on the inside (standard and depth), and a standard camera on the front. Note that the inside screen has a bit of a cut out where the cameras go.
It’s a very interesting product, with features such as the ability to display and run three applications at once on the inside screen. It can make apps transition from the outside screen to the internal one, just by opening up the device, in what it calls «app continuity.» Samsung says it has worked with Google on this feature, and demonstrated it with Maps, but it’s unclear how many applications will work this way.
Still, it’s quite impressive—as is the price: starting at $1,980 for the LTE version. It’s due out April 26; a 5G version will follow. Huawei Mate X
In recent years, Huawei has emerged as the leading contender to Samsung in the Android market (except in the US, where carriers do not sell its phones). It seemed determined to show leadership over Samsung during its announcement of its foldable Mate X by repeatedly calling out where it has made different design choices.
While the Mate X is only being shown behind glass on the show floor, I was able to spend a little time with a device, and it seems quite solid, folding and unfolding easily, but sturdily.
