Samsung Unveils a Folding Smartphone

AlphaAtlas

AlphaAtlas

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What's old is new again. While smaller manufacturers have already "launched" a new generation folding phones, and bigger ones like Xiaomi have teased folding prototypes, Samsung officially unveiled the aptly names "Galaxy Fold" at the Samsung Unpacked event yesterday. Unlike your old flip-phone, the Galaxy Fold features a flexible 7.3 inch display that takes up the phone's entire unfolded face, and it's powered by a "7nm, 64-bit processor" that has more cores and just as much RAM as the desktop I'm typing on. Some sources claim the unspecified processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, but Samsung could also follow in the footsteps of the conventional Galaxy lineup and use their home-brewed Exynos 9820 outside the U.S.

Check out the unveiling here.

The internal screen does not merely bend. It folds. Folding is a more intuitive motion, and a more difficult innovation to deliver. Samsung invented a new polymer layer and created a display around 50 percent thinner than the typical smartphone display. The new material makes Galaxy Fold flexible and tough, built to last...No matter which way you hold-or fold-the device, a camera will be ready to capture the scene, so you never miss the moment. With six lenses-three in the back, two on the inside and one on the cover-the Galaxy Fold camera system has flexibility built in. Galaxy Fold introduces a new level of multitasking, allowing you to use other apps during a video call.
 
Near $2000... And their s10 are pushing near the same at top specs. Seems like high end phones are going up at least a couple hundred each generation.
 
Term-X said:
Near $2000... And their s10 are pushing near the same at top specs. Seems like high end phones are going up at least a couple hundred each generation.
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These are the prices that might make me go back to the used market for a few generation old smartphones. when all i really use on it is email and camera anymore, might as well.
 
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Nope. I went the other way this time. I had a Galaxy Epic, Galaxy s3, Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy S8+...THIS time I decided I was done buying overpriced "flagship" phones, especially since my S8+ suffered from extreme screen burn, and bought a $250 LG Stylo 4. It's a little sluggish, but it gets the job done, the screen is large and I don't notice the difference in resolution. And, most importantly, I don't need to sell a kidney to buy one...and I don't need to lease or pay monthly.
 
I've my eye on the Xiaomi Mi 9
Specs are fantastic and it would do me.
Touchwiz just pisses me off these days
 
$2000? [H] F'in pass. Also F that that notch, better have an option in the software(SW) to make the image a perfect rectangle like when watching a video.
At 2k, it better have a micro SD slot, and a removable battery would be nice.
But then again, at that price, I'll pickup a low/mid range phone and carry a powerful tab.
 
Beautiful, as an iphone user, this is quite nice. My first impression is that it doesn't look like it's been refined as much as it could have - but that takes time. Users that pay for this phone should consider themselves beta testers.

mothandras said:
I really liked it until I saw the notch taking about 1/16th of the screen in tablet mode.

Swing and a miss.
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How did you live with phones that didn't have edge to edge displays?
 
Nobody cares about how easy a smartphone is to use while you're urinating. The Galaxy Fold looks like it would be much easier to drop into the toilet.

Nice rendition of "Pure Imagination", though.
 
I wonder how they'll figure out screen/phone protection for it?

Still no interest for me mainly because it add thickness.
 
Beautiful looking phone. I wouldn't mind having one but at $2,000 that's a no go. We'll see what the durability rating is in the coming months as well.
 
There's potential, certainly. I'd get it in a few gens when the front screen fills most of the estate, the phne is thinner and a different aspect ratio, notches are gone and...well, those are actually my main issues right now.
 
TheOne&OnlyZeke said:
I've my eye on the Xiaomi Mi 9
Specs are fantastic and it would do me.
Touchwiz just pisses me off these days
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Can't you install another home launcher?

seanreisk said:
Nobody cares about how easy a smartphone is to use while you're urinating. The Galaxy Fold looks like it would be much easier to drop into the toilet.

Nice rendition of "Pure Imagination", though.
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Can't beat Gene Wilder's!
Had some near misses myself dropping my phone in the bowl. Kind of feel sorry for the Hitmoney on the Mektek forums when his landed in the 'mud' years ago.
 
These are phones, boring at that and they are not desktop replacements. Yeah, you cannot take you laptop or desktop onto the toilet, there is that. :D
 
The Mad Atheist said:
Can't you install another home launcher?


Can't beat Gene Wilder's!
Had some near misses myself dropping my phone in the bowl. Kind of feel sorry for the Hitmoney on the Mektek forums when his landed in the 'mud' years ago.
Click to expand...

Touchwiz does not get disabled though.
 
As much as I love the thought of squinting less when using my phone that battery is only marginally larger than the Note 9 with twice the screens to light up. The charger better fold too, you'll be needing it!
 
ManofGod said:
Touchwiz does not get disabled though.
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TheOne&OnlyZeke said:
^This

Phone still ends up being slow compared to an identically spec'd phone with a lighter launcher
I compared the S8 at the time to the Xperia XZ Premium and the HTC U11...both the other phones blew the S8 away in terms of responsiveness
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That sucks, didn't know TW's still running. Last Samsung was able to install another ROM thus getting rid of TW. My current one can only be ROOTed through some tricks but still have a lock bootloader. :(
 
The Mad Atheist said:
$2000? [H] F'in pass. Also F that that notch, better have an option in the software(SW) to make the image a perfect rectangle like when watching a video.
At 2k, it better have a micro SD slot, and a removable battery would be nice.
But then again, at that price, I'll pickup a low/mid range phone and carry a powerful tab.
Click to expand...

Yeah, talk about a fat hideous phone. Notch looks absolutely atrocious. Better off having a small bezel with a camera than a notch.
 
Check out pictures of the bottom of the phone, or the actual hinge area.

It looks really bad. Most of the images released by Samsung hide this.
 
zkostik said:
Yeah, talk about a fat hideous phone. Notch looks absolutely atrocious. Better off having a small bezel with a camera than a notch.
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There's a phone where you can slide the 100% OLED full screen down to uncover the front CAM and flash, pretty neat, I think Jerryrigseverything(?) did a tear down. IMO it's better than the one were the CAM/flasher pops up out the top.
 
The hardware is impressive, but I tend to say no thanks to Samsung's factory loaded bloatware. On top of that, you have the carrier's bullshit software to deal with too. $2,000 for a tablet / phone thing is too much for me. Its still cool conceptually.
 
If it was half the size and half the price, I might have bit. Just too much money when I already have a phone that I paid $720 for over 2 years ago (that still works great).
 
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I scoff at a 2k phone. and I think the foldable phone will be imminently breakable. But time will tell.

I also scoffed at a 1k phone, and a 600 dollar phone, and a not free phone... times change.
 
Darunion said:
These are the prices that might make me go back to the used market for a few generation old smartphones. when all i really use on it is email and camera anymore, might as well.
Click to expand...
ehh, I find the midrange phones that release at $300 and then quickly drop to <$250 work just fine for me.
 
$2000 for any phone is a joke and I am sure the battery life on that thing is, too. Wait 6 months and buy the latest smartphone on eBay for $200-400. Keep for 2 years, sell for half the price. Repeat. $4 - $8/month.
 
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Just what we need in a "smart" phone, a hinge that can go bad. Didn't they learn anything from the Krell?
 
Make a phone twice as thick, that you have to unfold for a screen thats more useful as a tablet than a phone that costs $2k...

Me: Ok, how about adding just 1mm to thickness to give a much larger removable battery, SD slot, 3.5mm in a standard phone format?
MFGs: Fuck off, here is a USB-C dongle.

As time goes on I see less and less phones I would want to own.
 
Nunu said:
Lol, they should call it samsung-unfoldyourwallet. Yea, eventually these will get to around 3-400, maybe then people will actually get them.
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Plenty of people will get them now. The market has changed, much as some might not like it.

I wouldn't get one but I also understand that a market shift has happened, and the market supports these increasing pricepoints.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
$2000 for any phone is a joke and I am sure the battery life on that thing is, too. Wait 6 months and buy the latest smartphone on eBay for $200-400. Keep for 2 years, sell for half the price. Repeat. $4 - $8/month.
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That phone has 4380mAh of battery. I don't think I'd pay out that much for this proof of concept, but at least this is something new.

Having said that, I don't think crying about the sticker price is warranted. Samsung is actually trying something here with 1x 4.6" display outside on top of that 7.3" foldable display. Apparently the Galaxy wireless buds do come with the phone, so there's that.
(especially after looking at the cost of a 512GB iPhone XS Max at $1450)
 
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