Samsung’s Director of Product Strategy and Marketing has revealed that the company will be releasing a foldable phone later in the year, much to the confusion of everyone (or maybe just me) who had no idea that foldable phones were even a remote possibility.
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Director Suzanne de Silva revealed at CES, the International Consumer Electronics Show, that the phone will be arriving in the first half of 2019, but wouldn’t say much more beyond that.
BREAKING: @Samsung's Foldable Phone has a confirmed timeline for launch. For more breaking #CES2019 – https://t.co/t0WgUB3X6J pic.twitter.com/FQjHK3DiEi
— Digital Trends (@DigitalTrends) January 8, 2019
So what else do we know about the phone?
According to Gizmodo, there were rumours late last year that the phone would cost somewhere around 2 million won, or roughly $2493AUD.
The phone is able to be folded because of something Samsung calls the ‘Infinity Flex Display’, which allows use without degradation.
It will run a new OS that’s designed for one-handed use, and will be able to run up to three apps simultaneously.
This all sounds really futuristic and expensive, but foldable phones aren’t new. Who didn’t have one of these in 2005?
Foldable and incredibly durable, and it didn’t cost almost $2500.
This feels like evidence that trends in phones are cyclical: when mobile phones first came out, they were huge and clunky, so when companies wanted to modernise, they shrunk their phones. But for the past few years, phone screens have been getting bigger and bigger.
Now, after moving away from flip phones since smart phones became the norm, we’re going back to phones that you can flip (okay, fold)!
Clearly, there are no new ideas under the sun.
I would personally like to see the revival of the Hiptop. Can somebody make this happen?
