Samsung is working on a pair of new foldable smartphones to follow its Galaxy Fold released at MWC. According to a report from Bloomberg, Samsung Electronics Co. is said to be developing a clamshell-like device, and another that folds away from the user, similar to Huawei’s Mate X.
The US$1,980 Galaxy Fold that Samsung plans to release in April folds inward like a notebook.
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.
“No one knows what the ideal design is yet,” said Bryan Ma, vice president of devices research at IDC. “The time is ripe for experimentation. Many of these designs won’t be successful, but industry players will learn valuable lessons along the way.”
The device 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, the report said.
The out-folding device, which already exists as a prototype after being considered as Samsung’s first foldable phone, will roll out afterward. It will be thinner because it has no extra screen.
Samsung forecasts production of at least 1 million foldable phones this year.
The Galaxy Fold is at MWC but you can’t touch it pic.twitter.com/NvrfHRz4JU
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) February 25, 2019
Samsung may also incorporate an in-display fingerprint sensor for its foldable lineup, as it did for the Galaxy S10 model announced last month, according to the report.
Samsung, which also produces memory chips and televisions, makes the foldable displays itself and supplies technology to rivals such as Apple. The South Korean company shipped 291.3 million phones last year while Huawei sold 205.8 million, according to Strategy Analytics. Samsung will probably sell more than 40 million units of its flagship Galaxy S10 in the first year of release, according to Counterpoint.
No word when the Galaxy Fold will be available in Costa Rica.
