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Samsung Announces Plans for Galaxy Note Smartphone With Bendable Display in 2018

MacRumors said:



Ahead of the iPhone X unveiling, and the launch of the Galaxy Note 8 on Friday, Samsung today made a few announcements at a press event in Seoul, South Korea. The company said that it aims for the next iteration of the Galaxy Note to be bendable in some capacity, with the goal of launching sometime next year (via The Associated Press).

Samsung Electronics mobile business president Koh Dong-jin confirmed the company's plans, saying it's looking at a 2018 release date for "a smartphone with a bendable display." The president also commented that there are "several hurdles" Samsung has to overcome to implement a smartphone with a bendable screen, so the company is leaving itself room to push back the 2018 release if it needs to.

samsung-bendable-phone.jpg

A bendable smartphone mockup by Samsung​


Similar reports about bendable smartphones from Samsung have come out in the past, but the company has yet to officially launch such a device.
What those issues might be were not detailed, but analysts watching the company pointed out that mass production on a premium smartphone with a bendable display and a thin body "will take time." Rumors surrounding Samsung's entry into the bendable smartphone market have been swirling for the past few years. In late 2016, reports even began citing Apple's interest in the technology for future iPhones, which could be sourced from LG.

Koh further commented about Samsung's plans to launch a smart home speaker in partnership with Harman, which will allow users to talk to an artificial intelligence assistant -- likely Bixby -- to control the device and perform various tasks. A release date or design details for the Samsung speaker were not given. Later today, Apple may reveal more information about its own smart speaker, the HomePod, which it announced in June for a December release.

Despite the Galaxy Note 8's expensive price tag (about $930 in the United States), Samsung has said that pre-orders were the highest ever for the Note smartphone line, "beating its predecessor Note 7 over five days by about 2.5 times." Samsung's announcements come a few hours ahead of Apple's big media event, where the Cupertino company will debut the significantly redesigned OLED iPhone X.

Article Link: Samsung Announces Plans for Galaxy Note Smartphone With Bendable Display in 2018
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This is exactly what I was talking about.. that's new tech. This is something Apple should have been all over. Where's the "NEW"??!! I love Apple but dang Samsung really has a one up on them in the screen department. Here.. you can now use OLED.. great thank you.. wait what's that over there? Oh foldable screen.. yeah you can't have that one yet. Enjoy the OLED though. ;)
 
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DrJohnnyN said:
Serious question: What are the main reasons one would want a foldable phone?
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One of the most obvious ones would be to have the ability to use a bigger screen when the necessity arises, without having to carry a separate device. Consuming media, photography editing, video editing etc....
 
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Good luck with that bendable phone, Samsung. You guys couldn't even stop a solid phone's battery from bursting. What makes you guys think you're going to suddenly engineer one that can bend, along with all the other circuit boards, as soon as next year? I'm sure it will go over about as well as your curved displays, which are pointless and actually make the experience worse. Just because you can doesn't always mean you should. I thought you guys would have learned that with your face unlock software that was instantly defeated—at the hands on table after the event no less—with a photo of the person taken on another phone.
 
No one really cares. They put this out we go oh, then return to what actually matters. It just shows how desperate they are. They haven’t even launched this years note and the day of apples event they start saying what next years is going to be. (Likely won’t even happen they just want attention) if I was a Samsung person I’d be mad knowing they seemingly care more about next years phone than this years.

As it says bendable in some capacity... aka if you bend it, it will snap
 
GregJohn said:
No one really cares. They put this out we go oh, then return to what actually matters. It just shows how desperate they are. They haven’t even launched this years note and the day of apples event they start saying what next years is going to be. (Likely won’t even happen they just want attention) if I was a Samsung person I’d be mad knowing they seemingly care more about next years phone than this years.

As it says bendable in some capacity... aka if you bend it, it will snap
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Lol Do you know most U.S. people got their Notes last week..nearly a week before launch? That's what I call a company who knows their customer's wants.

Bendable displays are being made not to be breakable .....the future is near.
 
Folding phones ? pff...Apple already tried this years ago. They called it iPhone 6. Didn't work well.
 
I can't imagine it's going to be that durable beyond minor bending. Anything greater than 90°, and it's going to wear out after a thousand or so bends.
 
Hmm said:
So the phone will bend, but will it blend?
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It will if you’re okay with the battery exploding. Oh.. you don’t even need a blender for that. Ah what the hell give it a shot.

@jamesrick80 i don’t care who got that phone or if it was early. They don’t care what you want, they care about getting whatever they can out before Apple. Yet Samsung is still a tiny dot in comparison. My condolences to those that wasted their money on it.


@nviz22 you do know most gimmicky things that they put in don’t even work :/ if what you listed is the future, your outlook is bleak
 
A plastic display with a noticeable crease where it bends/folds. Not worth giving up high quality build/materials just so it can bend. I’ll pass for now.
 
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Awesome, I see this as the next evolution, combining a tablet and a smartphone. Can't wait to see the first production one.
 
Anyone notice how the article says "bendable" and most of the comments are about "foldable". A bendable phone would be less susceptible to screen cracks. That's great, but I've never cracked a screen by inadvertently bending my phone. (knocking on wood). So it's my opinion that bendable would be a fine feature but not really groundbreaking. It's just allowing more deflection before damage and what every display engineer is trying to achieve.

If the announcement was for foldable, then it'd be quite a bit more interesting but it's not... It's for bendable. Meh.
 
They're just stepping on Apple's d**k today.

But...Apple should be worried. Samsung will eventually offer such a product and Apple will not have access to the display technology that makes it possible.
 
DrJohnnyN said:
Serious question: What are the main reasons one would want a foldable phone?
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Serious answer: you really cannot think of any reasons? At the least, being able to change from a pocket phone to a mini tablet whenever you want or need.

macduke said:
Good luck with that bendable phone, Samsung. You guys couldn't even stop a solid phone's battery from bursting. What makes you guys think you're going to suddenly engineer one that can bend, along with all the other circuit boards, as soon as next year?
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Samsung has been making folding prototypes for years now, along with patenting various types of enclosures. They've got that part down pat. Now they just have to improve the durability.

lunarworks said:
I can't imagine it's going to be that durable beyond minor bending. Anything greater than 90°, and it's going to wear out after a thousand or so bends.
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Which is why such devices will not bend with a crease. They'll bend in a curve. Let me see if I can find a diagram. Ah, okay. One possible design seen from the top/bottom is

2012_samsung-foldable-display-device.png
So the case has to be just thick enough that the curve matches the safe bend radius of the display. This bend radius and its lifetime is primarily what Samsung has been improving for the past few years.

Five years ago it only took about a few hundred bends like that to start causing circuit rips. Unknown what lifetime they're up to now, or what number they're shooting for.

IF they included an outside display for normal phone usage, then the number of times you'd open up the "book" to make a tablet would likely be greatly lessened during the day.

--

Shoot. Forgot why I was posting. It was because, interestingly enough, Samsung has for years called their folding phone, the "Galaxy X".
 
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kdarling said:
Samsung has been making folding prototypes for years now, along with patenting various types of enclosures. They've got that part down pat. Now they just have to improve the durability.
View attachment 717097
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I understand that, but I see where you're going with that prototype. If it bends like that instead of the whole thing entirely, then that's a lot more doable and a good likely stepping stone to the really advanced bendable stuff of the future.
 
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jamesrick80 said:
Samsung had their bendable display protype before that abysmally built iPhone 6 and iPad air 1. Both bent due to cheap aluminum frames.
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Nah! If nobody heard and didn't ended up in the national news then it's not true. That's how this generation works nowadays I'm not saying I don't believe what you said, but majority here would not believe that story.:D
 
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