Samsung's foldable smartphone tipped for November unveiling
Following years of rumors of its development, Samsung will be revealing its plans to produce a foldable smartphone later this year, the head of the electronics giant's mobile division has confirmed, with the first appearance of the fabled device potentially occurring in November.
A 2014 Samsung concept of a foldable smartphone
Samsung CEO DJ Koh advised the Korean firm will provide details of a foldable smartphone it intends to produce, confirming the product was under development. While it is unlikely for a finished product to be available to consumers before the end of the year, Koh suggested to CNBC there is a possibility it will make an appearance at the Samsung Developers Conference, held in November.
Koh did not state how the smartphone's folding action works, but in describing the logic behind its design, suggested it would be more like a smartphone when folded, but like a tablet when unfolded.
"You can use most of the uses... on a foldable status but when you need to browse or see something, then you may need to unfold it," advised Koh at the IFA electronics show last week. "Even unfolded, what kind of benefit does that give compared to the tablet? If the unfolded experience is the same as the tablet, why would they (consumers) buy it?"
According to the company's consumer surveys, Koh claims there is a market for such a device to exist, and that it is "time to deliver" the technology to consumers.
Samsung has reportedly invested considerable resources into flexible OLED screens over the years, but while flexible screens have so far been used in relatively limited ways, such as with fixed bends, a foldable display has yet to make it to market.
Numerous reports in the past have speculated that a foldable smartphone was on the way, with one codenamed "Project Valley" consisting of a screen that could fold in half. Another has also been rumored to consist of a smartphone with a 5-inch display when folded, but turns into an 8-inch screen when unfolded.
As Samsung is a major supplier of displays to Apple, reports have also circulated suggesting it was developing flexible displays for iPhones, but not necessarily a foldable version. Current analyst speculation suggests an iPhone with a foldable display could launch as soon as 2020, potentially in collaboration with LG.
Apple has already secured a number of patents relating to the creation of a foldable smartphone, including ways to produce a flexible display in hinged devices, along with wrap-around displays. It has also applied for patents for other related elements, including stretchy substrates for attaching components together on a flexible device, and enabling force gesture controls on bendable devices.
A 2014 Samsung concept of a foldable smartphone
Samsung CEO DJ Koh advised the Korean firm will provide details of a foldable smartphone it intends to produce, confirming the product was under development. While it is unlikely for a finished product to be available to consumers before the end of the year, Koh suggested to CNBC there is a possibility it will make an appearance at the Samsung Developers Conference, held in November.
Koh did not state how the smartphone's folding action works, but in describing the logic behind its design, suggested it would be more like a smartphone when folded, but like a tablet when unfolded.
"You can use most of the uses... on a foldable status but when you need to browse or see something, then you may need to unfold it," advised Koh at the IFA electronics show last week. "Even unfolded, what kind of benefit does that give compared to the tablet? If the unfolded experience is the same as the tablet, why would they (consumers) buy it?"
According to the company's consumer surveys, Koh claims there is a market for such a device to exist, and that it is "time to deliver" the technology to consumers.
Samsung has reportedly invested considerable resources into flexible OLED screens over the years, but while flexible screens have so far been used in relatively limited ways, such as with fixed bends, a foldable display has yet to make it to market.
Numerous reports in the past have speculated that a foldable smartphone was on the way, with one codenamed "Project Valley" consisting of a screen that could fold in half. Another has also been rumored to consist of a smartphone with a 5-inch display when folded, but turns into an 8-inch screen when unfolded.
As Samsung is a major supplier of displays to Apple, reports have also circulated suggesting it was developing flexible displays for iPhones, but not necessarily a foldable version. Current analyst speculation suggests an iPhone with a foldable display could launch as soon as 2020, potentially in collaboration with LG.
Apple has already secured a number of patents relating to the creation of a foldable smartphone, including ways to produce a flexible display in hinged devices, along with wrap-around displays. It has also applied for patents for other related elements, including stretchy substrates for attaching components together on a flexible device, and enabling force gesture controls on bendable devices.
Comments
2) JFC THAT PROMO AD IS BAD!
(Besides the one I met 28 years ago who keeps hanging around just cuz I "married" her.)
I’m convinced there’s no way to solve these technical issues at this time:
- Making a foldable device as “stiff” and “solid” feeling as a regular device when opened. Not in something as small as a phone where there’s no space to put a proper hinge/locking mechanism. I don’t believe they’ll be able to make it feel like a single “piece” (like current devices).
- Eliminating the “crease” where the display bends such that people won’t be able to notice it when viewing content or when swiping your finger across it (gestures). Think of the iPad with laminated display vs the non-laminated one and how much better the laminated one feels.
This will no doubt be be an expensive device, and people will demand a premium feel that won’t be possible.
Then we have other usability issues. Do you now have to open your phone every time you want to use it? People like the speed of picking up their phone and using it right away. This will add another step in using it and putting it away after use. How about scratch resistance? The display might bend, but Gorilla glass doesn’t. How will they keep the screen free from scratches from normal use?
Sorry, I just don’t see this working anytime soon.
one is that OLED is very sensitive to moisture, and plastic allows enfiltration of moisture. That’s been a major reason Win 10 they’re bonded to glass. The second is that even if the bending area doesn’t fail in some way, the surface isn’t glass, so it’s going to go back to the bad old days of highly scratched screens.
will consumers accept this?
what if you drop your phone, and BendGate all over again!
As for the technical hurdles, are we really in a position to still say "it can't be made to work" or "it'll be awful"?? After all we've seen in the past 5 or 10 years?
I don't like Samsung any more than the next guy (or the next ten guys), but I'd rather see this and then decide.
No point on doing this when a newspaper could become a foldable screen.
the question with this device is whether it’s real, or just a technology concept. If the latter, then it’s there to judge reactions, not to serve as an actual product preview.
but the difficulties of making something like this, which is almost considered to be the holy grail of smartphone screens, are real. For those who were either too young to be familiar with plastic screens on smartphones, where you had to interact with your screen directly, or not interested in the phones back then, going back to plastic would be quite a revelation. We NEEDED screen protectors back then. Now, with companies trying to convince us that we need tempered glass protectors and other crap, even though we don’t, they would have a field day with this. The problem, of course, would be how you get a flexible protector to bend enough in the middle to not cause a problem. Glass is out, because you would need two pieces, and with the middle needing a good 0.25” of bend room, you’d have a big slice in the middle not protected.
what a mess!
people would also complain that opening up their phones to use them for something quick, such as reading notifications, is a real pain. So it would need a screen on the outside too, if for nothing else than for basic phone and notification purposes. This will make the phone thicker, heavier and much more expensive than the expensive product it will be anyway.
sometimes you can’t just say that we’ve seen a lot of things in the past ten years, so why not this too? Not every product is practical, or if it is, it may be very expensive, or too ahead of the technology needed to produce it. I see a lot of patents that are great, but the technology to produce something using the patent isn’t there yet. I think I read somewhere that Samsung is stating that the surface of this screen is as hard as Gorrila Glass, or something to that effect. I don’t see how that is possible.
There are hard coatings for plastics, such as these used as windows and for eyeglass lenses. But this coating are either expensive, or are effective for something that just gets dirty, like a window outside, that doesn’t get rubbed much. Those coatings wear off. They’re also not as hard as hardened glass in the practical sense, because they’re just a couple of thou thick. The substrate is soft, and so scratches push their way into the coating and the substrate beneath. Anyone who uses hard anodized aluminum is familiar with the problem.