Samsung Galaxy X: Everything you need to know about Samsung's foldable Galaxy X
Samsung Galaxy X foldable phone display. Samsung appears to be working on a device that sports three 3.5-inch OLED displays. This would suggest one sits on the front when folded and the other two fold out into one large display of around 7-inches. What isn’t clear at this stage is if the large display will have a line where the hinge folds out to join the two screens. If they were two bezel-free screens this might look near seamless. Samsung has previously showed off roll-out screens – but these were just prototypes with no touchscreen components involved.Seven years in the making
The idea of a foldable phone isn’t new to Samsung. In fact way back in 2011 the company showed off a prototype of exactly that. The device looked chunky and awkward. But even back then it somewhat worked. Remaining intact after 100,000 folds, with only a 6% drop in brightness at the center. Where all the folding action happened. This clearly wasn’t a commercial product. But later that year Samsung launched a concept video of a fully bendable (and transparent) mobile device. That could fold out from a phone-sized screen to a tablet-sized one, showing Samsung's ambitions for the technology.Production problems
By 2012 Samsung was already hard at work trying to launch the first generation of flexible or foldable phones. But a report late in the year claimed that problems with the production of flexible screens would hold the first bendy display back until at least 2013. That didn’t stop Samsung showing off another video of a foldable future though. Highlighting all sorts of transparent screens, made from plastic that’s thin, light and flexible enough to fully fold or roll. And as 2012 came to a close it seemed Samsung might be overcoming its production problems. With another report claiming that its flexible plastic screens were in the final stage of development, with the first phones sporting them likely to land in mid-2013.Samsung looks set to reveal its rumoured Galaxy X foldable smartphone soon to help start a whole new trend in the world of folding phones. Samsung won’t be the only one to jump on the foldable phone trend as Google, Apple and more are also rumoured to be working on their own foldable phones for 2019. The Samsung Galaxy X should be a three screen device that works as a normal phone but then folds out to operate like a tablet with a big clear screen. Samsung has been working on flexible, folding and bendable screens for a good seven years now so seeing the Galaxy X appear soon won’t be a huge surprise. The screen manufacturing company has shown off bendable displays, concept foldable phone videos and allegedly a prototype model already. So what can we expect?
Samsung’s bendy plastic screens got a more real-world debut at CES 2013. Along with a name – they were now called. ‘Youm’. Though it was clear from the flexible prototype on show that Samsung was still far from putting a Youm display on a commercial device.
Samsung Galaxy X foldable phone release date and price The latest rumours suggest that Samsung is gearing up to launch its Galaxy X foldable phone as early as February 2019. This launch is expected to happen at the Mobile World Congress 2019 trade event where the company usually launches its Galaxy flagship handset for the year. This fits with other rumours that the flagship Galaxy S10 will be released earlier, at CES 2019 in January, to make way for the new Galaxy X which will get the limelight. Pricing is very difficult to guess as nothing specific has leaked. However rumours suggest this first model will be made in limited numbers so don’t expect them to be cheap – think iPhone X £999 price or higher.
Round the Edge
The closest thing we actually got to a foldable phone from Samsung in 2013 was the Samsung Galaxy Round. This was far from the prototypes and concepts we’d seen, but as the world’s first curved screen smartphone it was a big step in the right direction. That was followed up by the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, which curved in a now more familiar direction, one which Samsung has since fully embraced with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and other phones with curved edges.Samsung Galaxy X
In May 2016 Project Valley got a new name. The Samsung Galaxy X. Which was believed to be the name it would release under. According to reports at the time it would be ready for release in 2017 and would have a foldable 4K display. So that the resolution would remain high even when the phone was folded. We were sceptical about that launch date at the time, and were right to be, as we're now in 2018 with no sign of it.But that’s not quite the full story so far. At SID 2016 Samsung showed off a roll-out display – but one which didn’t have a touchscreen layer, which would be pretty vital for a smartphone. Then in June 2017 “people familiar with the matter” reported that we might see two foldable phones from Samsung in 2017 - backing up those previous Galaxy X reports. Supposedly one would fold out from a 5-inch handset to an 8-inch tablet, much like the concept video Samsung showed back at the beginning of our story. While the other would fold in half like a cosmetic compact, along the lines of a folding phone patent we’d already seen.
This 2017 launch didn't happen, but Samsung was clearly on the right track, with another patent looking to solve one of the biggest problems with folding phones – the ability to fold without damaging any internal components. The patent described an “artificial muscle”, which would move in time with the screen bending to protect other components.
We have seen plenty of early glimpses that claim to show off the Samsung Galaxy X. One came from a patent spotted by GalaxyClub, highlighting a long device, with a shape more like a remote control than a smartphone, but one which could fold down to half the size. The shape doesn’t seem particularly practical. So we doubt this is the form the Galaxy X will take, but it’s vaguely along the lines of the phone-to-tablet convertible we’ve been hearing about, and a similar design has popped up since.
One of the more recent bits of information that may point to the foldable X looks different than previous info. Much like the ZTE Axon M that came out in 2017. According to some sources, more than 100,000 units were going to roll out in the third quarter 2017 - though they added that plans for a 2017 launch could apparently be changed, which has clearly happened if any such plans ever existed.