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Samsung Unveils New $1,980 Galaxy Fold Smartphone

maxfromdenmark said:
It’s going the right way but 2000$ is unacceptable
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That's what people said about a $1,000 iPhone, with less than half the cool / usefulness factor.

elvislives said:
Great prototype guys! O you are selling it? $2k Haha what really? :eek:
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If Apple sold this exact same device, half you guys would be selling a kidney tomorrow, and you know it :)
 
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The Galaxy Fold has all the hallmarks of first generation design mistakes. It’s thick like a 90s Nokia Communicator so it’s too large for trouser pockets.

The display in ‘phone mode’ barely covers half the surface and has stupidly large bezels. It’s extremely ugly to look at when folded.
 
This device has two screens, six cameras, and technology that is literally unheard of in any other consumer device. This very likely cost not less than a few billion dollars to develop. This is a high-end smartphone and a tablet morphed into one single device. This thing has 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage and even has 5G

Yet people complain it costs a little bit more than a XS Max which brings a grand total of zero innovations???


**** you.
 
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SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
The Galaxy Fold has all the hallmarks of first generation design mistakes. It’s thick like a 90s Nokia Communicator so it’s too large for trouser pockets.

The display in ‘phone mode’ barely covers half the surface and has stupidly large bezels. It’s extremely ugly to look at when folded.
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This is because this is very much a 1st gen device. Nokia Communicators were breakthrough devices.
 
This is good..

You don't make your first production thin, as you've basically eliminated all your future changes in one fell swoop. What would you have to improve upon ?
 
MadeTheSwitch said:
LOL, I caught that too. I wouldn’t want to even be walking around Beverly Hills with this thing, much less the Tenderloin! Yikes!

And that brings me to the biggest problem with this device. Because it is so large and unique, everyone will know you are waving a $2000 device around. I am paranoid enough with a device much much cheaper. I can’t even imagine how nervous I would be at either dropping or having a $2000 device snatched from my hand. Maybe even both...snatched from and then broken right in front of me. Just to be jerks.
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That’s why your get insurance.
 
This is not a mass-adoption device, including for reasons other than the insanely high price, but this is genuinely impressive.
 
turbineseaplane said:
Man this forum is something else…

It’s amazing how many people here seem to think that only Apple comes up with and implements cool ideas.

When someone else does something truly interesting and innovative it’s all the sudden “a dumb idea”
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Let’s be honest here. Apple, if they do this, will do it right.
 
arbi4ever said:
my point is a device with Nvidia 1060gtx, i7 CPU, 32 gb Ram, best 4K display is $2000. This Samsung Fold is not reasonably priced!
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Fix all that in the same form factor with the same battery life and I'll totally cede your point.
 
Icaras said:
Cheapest Xs Max and cheapest iPad Pro is $1099 + $799 = $1998.

But you’re right, you don’t save money. It’s exactly $18 more expensive still :p

Edit: math fail. That’s $1898. So it is indeed cheaper to go Xs Max and iPad Pro :)
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Yeah except the XS Max starts at 1299 here and the iPad Pro at 999.
 
turbineseaplane said:
Not honestly sure I know what that means.
Apple has some really questionable design direction of late if you ask me.
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They wouldn’t release anything that looks remotely like the galaxy fold.
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pmore said:
It might be the beginning of Apple's end if they can't implement this in their products. Foldable devices is the next shift in tech.
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Lol
 
Icaras said:
I’m sorry. :(
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Everything made by Apple is more expensive in Europe than it is in the US - at the same time it doesn’t offer the same features. Apple Maps is close to unusable here, Siri on Apple TV exists in only a handful of states (not mine), the HomePod is sold in 5 states only, things like the EKG monitor on the Apple Watch aren’t available. Heck, not even Apple News is here. Yet Apple is charging up to 1/3 more here than in the US. Which has the effect that Android is absolutely dominant in Europe. As someone else already said: Europe is all about Android, WhatsApp and Google services. For some reason, Android device manufacturers actually don’t charge more here.
 
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alexhardaker said:
They wouldn’t release anything that looks remotely like the galaxy fold.
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Fair. I’d agree with that, but also say that “how it looks” does not equal a great product.

Apple, if anything, is way TOO focused on how things look (vs other important priorities)
 
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Tivoli_ said:
How many folds/unfolds before the screen start showing problems?
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I want to know how it handles scratches. Doubt they’re able to use glass on a folding phone.
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cknibbs said:
Just throwing this out there - wouldn’t the watching Netflix or YouTube actually be smaller on the 7.3” screen than say a XS Max or Note due to the screen ratio of the inside screen? I don’t mind the idea of a folding phone/tablet, but these ratios don’t seem optimal.
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I do think a 16:9 6.5-6.8” phone that folded out to a ~10/11” tablet makes more sense, but perhaps supersizing the Fold would have made it even more expensive or too fragile.
 
kis said:
Everything made by Apple is more expensive in Europe than it is in the US - at the same time it doesn’t offer the same features. Apple Maps is close to unusable here, Siri on Apple TV exists in only a handful of states (not mine), the HomePod is sold in 5 states only, things like the EKG monitor on the Apple Watch aren’t available. Heck, not even Apple News is here. Yet Apple is charging up to 1/3 more here than in the US. Which has the effect that Android is absolutely dominant in Europe. As someone else already said: Europe is all about Android, WhatsApp and Google services. For some reason, Android device manufacturers actually don’t charge more here.
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Yea, all that does sound bad and I get why iMessage is king here in the US, among the other things that you’ve mentioned. We can only hope Apple starts to ramp up international support. Hopefully sooner rather than later...
 
DblHelix said:
4.6" closed 7.3" open? Give me 6.5" closed and around 8-9" open I would be happy.
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6.5" closed at a 2:1 ratio would be 8.22" square when open, assuming no bezels

Thats kinda the problem - you fundamentally can only double the pixels in one dimension between the two (assuming same screen tech) - and since you are folding horizontally, all the top/bottom chrome, notches and on-screen keyboard limiting your vertical content space are still there. Things which scale to horizontal space like images may actually result in less content being visible.

A 3x fold would be pretty interesting - A 16:9 screen would unfold to close to 16:9 again, so you could turn sideways to see games/movies larger, get overall more space for viewing content, etc. at tablet sizes, 16:9 and 9:16 are both useful.

But doing a 3x fold is another order of complexity - do you accordion fold, and have the front screen wrap around to inside? How do you deal with the thickness now of three layers of electronics/casing?

I hope they get enough interest that they keep investing in the tech, because I'd love to see what the third generation of this looks like :)
 
Cigsm said:
Besides getting patents for foldable phone technology 4 years ago? Besides the AirPods that samesung and everyone else has copied?
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See what happens Cigsm, when you speak without knowing what your talking about. Now people are making you look like an idiot
 
Stoppet reading at page 4, so don’t know if anyone else has mentioned this, but half the thickness of each section and add one more so that it is three sections, with two hinges that fold in on themselves. 4.6” is great for the closed phone, but need closer to a 16x10 aspect ratio for the tablet part. That would give you an iPad sized device unfolded...

This looks very awesome though...hope there is a lot of competition in this space in the next 5 years or so...
 
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