Samsung has finally shown off its rumored foldable smartphone.
At the Samsung Developer Conference 2018 (SDC18) in San Francisco, during its Day 1 Opening Keynote, the highly rumored Samsung foldable phone was shown off by the company’s senior vice president of global marketing, Justin Denison.
The device can be used as a phone and fold out into a tablet.
While there have been many rumors about companies building foldable smartphones, the Samsung foldable phone – which has yet to be named – is the first to officially be introduce and shown off.
The device, which may be called the “Galaxy X” or “Galaxy F”, according to more rumors, folds up and functions like a smarthone and unfolds to function like a tablet. That being said, aside from a very short preview and tease of the device, very little was revealed about the actual product. In fact, for the brief time it was on stage, it was never displayed close up.
However, to be fair, the device is still in a working prototype phase, so what was teased, was only an idea of what the finished product might look like once it’s ready for the market. Still, as CNET pointed out, the device is conceptualized enough that it has earned Google’s support and seems to have prompted official Android support for all foldable phones, regardless of the manufacturer.
The Samsung foldable phone features the Infinity Flex display.
The Infinity Flex Display is unlike the typical displays used for conventional smartphone and tablet screens. Traditional displays are typically composed of multiple stacked and unmoving layers. The foldable phone’s Infinity Flex Display reportedly utilizes a new adhesive the company developed to laminate the display layers so that they have the ability to flex and fold hundreds of thousands of times without damage.
Moreover, the Infinity Flex Display is thinner than a normal display. To achieve this, the company cut the thickness of the polarizer layer, helping to make the screen legible by 45%.
Although the predicted release for this device is next year some time, it is not yet know when the Samsung foldable phone will go on sale or how much it will cost. That said, it won’t be surprising if these devices carry a price tag in excess of $1,000.
