Samsung Is Working On Two More Foldable Smartphones (bloomberg.com) 31
Samsung is working on a pair of new foldable smartphones to follow its Galaxy Fold, a smartphone with dual screens that fold in half like a notebook, and another that works just like any other. Bloomberg reports: The South Korean manufacturer is said to be developing a clamshell-like device, and another that folds away from the user similar to Huawei's Mate X, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing internal plans. The $1,980 Galaxy Fold that Samsung plans to release in April folds inward like a notebook. While it's still too early to gauge how much demand there will be for smartphones with flexible screens, Samsung and other rivals are eager to gain an edge over Apple Inc. in the $495 billion industry, especially amid cooling sales.
Samsung plans to unveil the vertically folding phone late this year or early next year, and is using mock-ups to fine-tune the design, the people said. The gadget is designed with an extra screen on the outside, but the manufacturer may remove it depending on how customers respond to a similar display on the Galaxy Fold, they said. The outfolding device, which already exists as a prototype after being considered as Samsung's first foldable gadget, will roll out afterward, the people said. It will be thinner because it has no extra screen, they said. Samsung may also incorporate an in-display fingerprint sensor for its foldable lineup, as it did for the Galaxy S10 model announced last month, they said. The report also touched on the Galaxy Fold's screen imperfection. Apparently, a crease "appears on the panel after it's been folded about 10,000 times, and Samsung is considering offering free screen replacements after releasing the product."
"The Galaxy Fold's screen imperfection develops on a protective film covering the touch sensor bonded with the display underneath," the report adds. "That's one reason why Samsung kept the phone inside a glass case at MWC in Barcelona last month."
Samsung plans to unveil the vertically folding phone late this year or early next year, and is using mock-ups to fine-tune the design, the people said. The gadget is designed with an extra screen on the outside, but the manufacturer may remove it depending on how customers respond to a similar display on the Galaxy Fold, they said. The outfolding device, which already exists as a prototype after being considered as Samsung's first foldable gadget, will roll out afterward, the people said. It will be thinner because it has no extra screen, they said. Samsung may also incorporate an in-display fingerprint sensor for its foldable lineup, as it did for the Galaxy S10 model announced last month, they said. The report also touched on the Galaxy Fold's screen imperfection. Apparently, a crease "appears on the panel after it's been folded about 10,000 times, and Samsung is considering offering free screen replacements after releasing the product."
"The Galaxy Fold's screen imperfection develops on a protective film covering the touch sensor bonded with the display underneath," the report adds. "That's one reason why Samsung kept the phone inside a glass case at MWC in Barcelona last month."
Good (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is these decent products at a reasonable price, is that they do not sell, or are profitable enough for a company to continue on.
Lets face it you are going to be spending between $300-$800 for a good mid-tier (non-premium/flagship) cell phone, the sub $300 phones the companies begin to cheap out on build quality, and will not Appity-App the newest Apps so well. The over $800 Premium phones, tend to be well built, but you are paying a lot features you really will not use.
For the people who are goo
Yay! (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
I've wanted a foldable, book-sized tablet with a good, wacom-like pen that I can read and annotate PDF files on comfortably since forever. The problem is, we'll only get something that can play two videos at once, because new shit isn't targeted at people who read, but at people who watch short advertising videos and "react".
Re: (Score:2)
Samsung will probably offer what you want, based on their current tablets and XL phones. Their pen is top notch, they support annotating documents. I would be strange if they removed that functionality from a foldable version of the Galaxy Note, for example.
But then again it is Samsung, they sometimes make some very strange choices.
Re: (Score:2)
Too bad I am not interested in something that comes with several brands of spyware preinstalled as system apps, and the only way I can root it and remove them is to flash it with a binary blob that I downloaded from a shady site on the Internets, which incidentally and inappropriately will also remove the warranty on the hardware.
Re: (Score:2)
People want to use tablets, however they cannot fit in your pocket. Having a folding device that will fit in your pocket then open up to be a larger tablet, is actually quite useful.
My real question is how reliable is this folding technology. My general rule of thumb is moving parts on a device is a key point of failure.
News at 11 (Score:3)
Not news for nerds. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is there are no longer Nerds. Back in the 1990's when Slashdot started. Computer Nerds were a thing, we were in general outcasted from society because we were doing anti-social things, like chatting with other users over computers, and not by telephone like norms. A lot of the factors that have classified us as Nerds are now normal socially acceptable activities.
Foldable phones old hat (Score:2)
I am now bored by folding phones, how about you also make the folding and non-folding phones interlockable so they act as one giant display of arbitrary shape and size?
That way you and a few friends can combine your displays to watch movies, or play games.
Interactive Holographic Displays... (Score:2)
Cool, but.... (Score:2)
....there's always a "but".
But they'll cost too much, prices I'm seeing are on the order of $2K, give or take. I just can't see spending that much on a phone.
Maybe someday, but not until they reach a sane price point (for me, at least).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If you said, for a touch screen cellphone with a 6inch display and 4k video recording people wouldn't have thought it crazy. Sounds cheap considering 15 years considering my sony cell phone had an attachment camera that shot in under 1 mega pixel.
Penblet mightier than the phoneblet (Score:2)
I'm mesmerized by Avatar / Geostorm tablet foldouts from what start off as oversized pens. I'll buy a working one of those for $2k.
Battery size, cooling (Score:2)
Despite needing to advance the "soft foldable film as a screen" technology a bit further, there a few show stoppers for a penblet:
1. power consumption:
we're used to have smartphone packing "almost humorously"-oversized computing power (at the end of the day: just to run all the stupid trackers in the webpages, in the apps, and in the core service / OS)
But there's a limit of how much you can miniaturize batteries to power these "micro-HPC-in-a-pocket".
To pack into a "fat oversized pen"
- you're either
Yay (Score:2)
And we complained about bending iPhones (Score:2)
Nah (Score:1)
Peak smartphone (Score:2)
Ok at this point I think we can say unequivocally that we've reached peak phone. They keep cramming more and more useless crap onto phones, at the expense of actual usable features.
I don't need a stupid folding display.
I don't need moronic AI-powered animated poop emojis.
I don't need visually jarring display contortions like holes and notches.
I don't need a phone so thin I can slice vegetables
I need a phone that can go for more than 1 (or maybe 2 if you're lucky) days on a charge.
I need a phone with the he
Suggestion (Score:1)