This year, the mobile tech community is readying itself for a massive influx of folding smartphones, and the first major release will be the Samsung Galaxy Fold. It’s out at the end of April, and so far we’ve only had a teasing glimpse of this exciting phone. Now, as it gets closer to the time when we’ll be able to buy one, more details about the Galaxy Fold are emerging.
Updates
Screens destined for the Galaxy Fold have started shipping from Samsung’s factory, ready to make the device a reality. The company revealed the news on April 10, but did not share any details on production numbers.
The folding smartphone has still not been used widely; but this has not stopped one person from seeing, using, and filming the device. It’s not the best quality video — it’s in portrait orientation, for a start — but does show the phone operating, folding, and unfolding. Additionally, the software may show the Galaxy Fold will be sold through the AT&T network in the U.S., due to one of AT&T’s apps being installed and visible on the screen.
Hands-on experiences
While we’ve seen the Galaxy Fold, few people have actually had chance to get their hands on one yet. Samsung has kept its folding phone behind glass, and away from grubby hands, so the amount of people who have used the phone are few in number.
Experiences shared in secret so far give us the most information about the Fold. This early report claiming time with the device details what we already know, but does also highlight a few flaws with the device. For example, it notes there’s a slight lag when transferring between the smaller screen on the outside and the larger, inner screen. According to the accounts from users of the device, the device can take up to a few seconds to transfer an app and display it in the correct aspect ratio.
The well-documented “crease” that forms on the inner screen is apparently not too much of an issue. While it can be felt under the finger, it’s quite hard to notice with the eye, especially when the display brightness is at 70 percent or higher. However, the inner screen is only able to be used when fully extended. While the device can sit with the inner screen at 90 degrees open, it won’t trigger the screen — so there’s no setting it up like a tiny laptop just yet.
On the plus side, the external 4.6-inch screen does everything you expect a smartphone to do, from playing games to running all sorts of apps. Handily, you can choose to have separate home screen setups on the internal and external displays — which makes perfect sense for making the most of all that space. The Fold runs Samsung’s One UI 1.2, and has support for custom wallpapers and Samsung Pay.
Design, display, and specs
Featuring an Infinity Flex display, the Samsung Galaxy Fold goes from a 4.6-inch display for phone mode and folds out to reveal a separate 7.3-inch display on the inside. It’s designed to be a comfortable device to hold one-handed. The 7.3-inch Infinity Flex display has a resolution of 2,152 × 1,536 pixels, while the smaller 4.6-inch display has a resolution of 1,960 × 840 pixels.
Samsung tests the fold using a series of machines that repeatedly fold and unfold the phone. It says that the stress test of folding a device 200,000 times takes around a week. Check out the machine in the video below.
A sophisticated hinge system with multiple interlocking gears is hidden inside the spine. The Samsung Galaxy Fold also has a 7nm processor and 12GB of RAM. There’s 512GB of universal flash storage, so it can read data twice as fast as other smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy Fold actually has two batteries inside, one in each side of the device, to get around the problem of having to have a folding battery. The battery is rated at 4,380mAh.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold comes in four colors: Cosmos Black, Space Silver, Martian Green, or Astro Blue, and you can apparently customize the color of the spine.
Samsung worked with Google and the Android developer community to tailor apps like WhatsApp and Microsoft Office, YouTube.
The interior screen is so big it can be used for three-app multitasking. You can watch a video, chat about it, and browse options on the web all at the same time. Samsung has showed this off with YouTube running on the left, a WhatsApp chat window at the top right, and a web browser at the bottom right.
The displays work together for a seamless experience thanks to something Samsung calls app continuity, so you can switch between screens without missing a beat. It looks like a smooth transition with Google Maps and Netflix shown in the demonstration.
“The Galaxy Fold is a device unlike any that’s come before it,” said Justin Denison, Samsung’s senior vice president of mobile marketing. “It’s a versatile smartphone, tablet, and camera.”
Camera
There are actually six cameras in the Samsung Galaxy Fold. Three on the back make up the main camera, combining a wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto lens. There’s also a dual front camera, which seems to be housed in a notch at the top right of the Infinity Flex display, and there’s a single cover camera as well.
Pricing and availability
The Samsung Galaxy Fold will come in LTE and 5G versions and it will be available for pre-order in the U.S. and in European countries on April 26. Units will start to ship on May 3. Prices will start from $1,980.
Lots of questions remain about folding phones, not least of which is whether the general public actually wants to buy them. The Samsung Galaxy Fold is sure to provide some early answers.
Updated on April 11, 2019: Added unofficial hands-on video, and screen shipment details.