Samsung’s Foldable Phone is one of the biggest rumor when it comes to smartphone projects of all time. It could start next major revolution in smartphone industry other than current bezel-less display trend. We are talking about many rumors and reports that points Samsung’s work on flexible display.
There is not even a single phone with Samsung’s foldable display so far. However, there are a lot of indications that company not only plans to launch Foldable smartphone but it could happen at the end of 2018 or in early 2019.
In this article I am compiling a all of the leaks and rumors about Samsung’s Foldable Display.
Samsung foldable phone: History
Samsung has be researching on foldable display from quite some time now. It has been working for over a decade now. In 2018, company showed an OLED screen that could be bent and still remain working. At CES in 2011, Samsung actually showed off a prototype for a smartphone with a flexible AMOLED display.
However, developing a single flexible display is one thing, making it masses for consumer’s smartphone is a greater achievement. Samsung had filed few patents for foldable phones and displays over past few years. In 2013 there were rumors about one of such phone named as Galaxy Q in MWC 13.
All of those rumors suggested a foldable dual Super AMOLED HD display with 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. Samsung’s Exynos 5250 process and 2GB of RAM along with 8MP rear camera and 2MP front camrea.
In 2014, Samsung posted a video showing a concept for a foldable phone, featuring a small display on the outside. The phone then folded out to show a larger display that’s stored inside with a flexible screen. Later that year, a Samsung executive claimed that the company would “secure production capacity of 30,000 to 40,000 [flexible displays each month] by the end of next year”. Yet, 2015 came and went with no such announcement of flexible displays, much less a phone with such a screen.
Back in 2014 an unofficial ad kind video popup on YouTube featuring small display outside. That phone when pressed the button become a large tablet with flexible screen. Samsung later on claimed “secure production capacity of 30,000 to 40,000”.
In 2015, another rumor popped up that Samsung was working on new device with code name “Project Valley“. It was not a flexible screen the phone was supposed to have pair of separate screens.
The flexible smartphone again appeared online in 2016, but didn’t launch. Samsung continues the research on flexible smartphone. In April 2017, Kim Tae-woong, Samsung Display’s principle engineer said, “Samsung foldable phone would not be released before 2019”. A few months later in September 2017, DJ Koh, CEO of Samsung told the reporters, “We will launch a foldable device when we are fully ready, and we are aiming to do so next year (2018).”
Earlier This Year, Once again Samsung came up with a flexible display phone behind closed door at CES. Later on a patent filing with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was leaked with flexible 7.3-inch OLED display. The design features a device that fold inside and It was also reffered to as Galaxy X.
SEE ALSO: The upcoming Samsung Galaxy X to put Apple’s iPhone X to shame
Samsung foldable phone: Name and release date
There has been a lot of rumors about naming of Samsung foldable phone including “Project Valley”, “Galaxy X” and “Winner”. However, none of them are expected to be actual name when handset itself released.
If this is true, the device could be shown to developers at the conference but not hit store shelves until 2019.
Samsung foldable phone: Specifications and Design
It’s too early to speculate about the hardware specs for the Samsung foldable phone.
Samsung will probably want to equip the phone with a large battery to go with the large display too. SamMobile reported that Samsung will begin producing flexible batteries with capacities ranging from 3,000mAh to 6,000mAh later this year.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the foldable phone will have a 7-inch display. When folded, the phone will reportedly have cameras on the back and a small display on the front.
Sources told ETNews that the foldable phone Samsung plans to bring to its developers conference in November will look a lot like the prototype shown at CES in 2014 (see previous section). This would be a surprising turn of events, considering it’s been nearly five years since we saw that design.
The phone will also reportedly feature a larger battery and powerful processor, though Samsung is concerned about possible overheating. The last thing the company wants is a repeat of its Galaxy Note 7 debacle, so it will likely take the proper steps to avoid that mess.
Framework files that XDA Developers unearthed referenced the unreleased Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150 chipset. This could be the marketing name for Qualcomm’s next flagship chipset and might be the first Qualcomm chipset with a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU).
