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At the Samsung Developer Conference this week, Samsung showed off a new conceptual design for a foldable smartphone, which could be technology that the company works on after the Galaxy Fold.

Rather than folding from tablet sized to smartphone sized like the Galaxy Fold, the design Samsung showed off today features a smartphone-sized device that folds in half much like a flip phone, collapsing down into a smaller size.


The device is also pictured folded in half in a way that would allow one half of it to serve as a stand for the other half, with a cooking video used as an example of a use case.

Samsung says that it plans to continue to explore a "range of new form factors" in the foldable category following the launch of the Galaxy Fold.

The Galaxy Fold finally debuted in September, months after its early 2019 unveiling. Samsung initially planned to launch the device earlier, but had to shelve it due to major issues that impacted the durability and performance of the device.

Samsung has since fixed those early problems, though the Galaxy Fold still seems to be a niche, high-cost device that's prone to damage and rather delicate, as we discovered in our hands-on.


There are rumors that Apple is exploring foldable display technology for the iPhone, but so far, we've seen no concrete evidence that Apple is seriously pursuing a foldable design at this point in time.

Article Link: Samsung Shows Off New Foldable Smartphone Concept
 
While I admire Samsung for bringing the Fold to the market (albeit ridiculously premium priced and half-baked), I’m still wondering what their next move is.

Samsung has been publicly bragging about it’s folding screens concepts for almost a decade, but can’t seem to implement the tech into anything useful or practical for the consumer. Apple looked at the Blackberry and said “We can do that better.” Samsung has been primed for years to bring true innovation to the market, and yet we continue to wait.
 
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I wonder if Apple has been "playing around" with foldable phones just to mess with Samsung and get them to waste a bunch of money making these things.
 
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After seeing what has been done with the Surface Duo, I don't think foldable screen tech is anything more than a gimmick. There's not a lot of value for the risk to damaging the device. Devices with two screens that happen to fold (like the duo) -- that's safe and immediately usable. The trick is more about the hinge.

Introduce an actual foldable screen and you start introducing a world of problems as we saw with the galaxy fold rollout. They didn't learn from history...

NOTE: there's a big difference between an actual foldable screen vs two separate screens that happen to be really close that close on a hinge. I think the latter will be definitely more prevalent in the upcoming years - it's cheaper, completely less risky, and immediately practical.
 
I wonder if Apple has been "playing around" with foldable phones just to mess with Samsung and get them to waste a bunch of money making these things.
Is this how you think companies work? That Apple and Samsung are in high school or something?

Apple and Samsung are multinational corporations controlled by many personalities and people with one common goal: to make money, and more specifically, raise their stock price.
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While I admire Samsung for bringing the Fold to the market (albeit ridiculously premium priced and half-baked), I’m still wondering what their next move is.

Samsung has been publicly bragging about it’s folding screens concepts for almost a decade, but can’t seem to implement the tech into anything useful or practical for the consumer. Apple looked at the Blackberry and said “We can do that better.” Samsung has been primed for years to bring true innovation to the market, and yet we continue to wait.

Their folding tech already exists in the iPhone. The screen rolls at the edges. But yes, it's not designed to change positions in the iPhone. But the tech is there, and in their own phones.
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After seeing what has been done with the Surface Duo, I don't think foldable screen tech is anything more than a gimmick. There's not a lot of value for the risk to damaging the device. Devices with two screens that happen to fold (like the duo) -- that's safe and immediately usable. The trick is more about the hinge.

Introduce an actual foldable screen and you start introducing a world of problems as we saw with the galaxy fold rollout. They didn't learn from history...

NOTE: there's a big difference between an actual foldable screen vs two separate screens that happen to be really close that close on a hinge. I think the latter will be definitely more prevalent in the upcoming years - it's cheaper, completely less risky, and immediately practical.
I agree with this. Too many tradoffs for a continuous screen vs 2 screens and a hinge.
 
If Samsung can make it work and not selling at a ridiculous high price, I think it will be a good option. I have to say it is easier on the eye to look at a larger display than a smaller one. Just to think if I can fold an iPad in half to make it compact while the back of the case protect the display when not in use.
 
I think that augment glass and then contacts with powerful advanced arm like processors like a apple watch as the core brain and wireless communications between the glass and the apple watch and the apple watch having 5G and WIFI 6 data communications is the future. Not bendable devices.
 
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What I love about Apple at their best is they consider all the materials that go into their hardware. Samsung developed foldable displays and “forgot” that no other part of a phone — glass, battery, metal — can bend that much. I think we’ll see something closer to what Microsoft is doing with two screens. From there, the hinge and “edge to edge” seam between the two screens could be refined to the point that sometime in the future the seam could be nearly invisible or hairline. That would be interesting. Honestly though I prefer candy bar phones over flip phones. When foldable phones are a popular option I don’t see those capturing the whole smartphone market. Some people will not want a flip phone.
 
Yes, someone make THAT! Forget the problems with Samesung and just dream about it. I loved my razr, a modern smart phone that folded like that would be really compelling. Anything to get us off the ten plus year old iPhone form factor that everyone copied would also be welcome.
 
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