Samsung has unveiled a foldable smartphone – the Galaxy Fold – alongside a 5G Galaxy S10 handset and three other Galaxy S10 mobiles but it is Galaxy Fold that has had tongues wagging.
Samsung on Wednesday said it will release a folding smartphone ‘Galaxy Fold’ in April that works with the next-generation 5G networks and will cost almost Ksh.200,000 ($1980), a move to entice consumers to upgrade their phones.
Watch the demo here.
The Galaxy Fold will go on sale on April 26, Samsung officials said at an event in San Francisco. The device will have a 4.6-inch (11.7 cm) display while folded and a 7.3-inch (18.5 cm) display when unfolded.
Samsung is using 512GB of Universal Flash Storage 3.0 (eUFS) for fast speeds, alongside a Qualcomm 7nm octa-core processor and 12GB of RAM. Samsung has even built two batteries for its Galaxy Fold, that are separated by the fold but combined in the Android operating system to represent a total of 4,380 mAh.
Samsung said the Galaxy Fold would open up to create a 7.3in (18.5cm) tablet-like display and would be able to run up to three apps at once.
A demo showed off “app continuity” features by which the device transferred from one mode to another much more smoothly than had been the case with an earlier foldable phone – Royole’s FlexPai.
At $1,980, the Fold costs twice the starting price of the Galaxy Note 9 or iPhone XS.
“We are giving you a device that doesn’t just define a new category, it defies category,” said Samsung’s Justin Denison at the event.
The move comes with the smartphone market in its worst-ever decline with consumers keeping devices longer and waiting for new innovations.
Samsung made the announcement on the home turf of rival Apple, with the two giants battling for the premium segment of the market.