Samsung released its first foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold, along with its Galaxy S10-series. The South Korean company had showcased a prototype version of the Galaxy Fold in November last year, which was followed by a number of hints about the phone over the years, and now the company has finally launched the Galaxy Fold at its Galaxy Unpacked 2019 event in San Francisco. The Galaxy Fold combines two screens in one form factor comprising of one main flexible display of 7.3-inch and the other secondary screen of 4.6-inch. The Galaxy Fold is a premium smartphone targeted at the consumers who want the latest technology at the palm of their hands. The device will go on sale in April this year at select markets around the world. However, Samsung has not yet revealed the specific markets it will ship the device in.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold comes with a brand new 7.3-inch Infinity Flex display which can be folded to turn the form factor of the device into a compact phone that can easily fit in the pockets. Samsung claims that it had to work from scratch and create a new manufacturing process, components and a lot more in order to turn the concept into a reality.
Samsung has provided a robust backbone in the form of a hinge to the device to ensure the practicality of the device. The hinge uses interlocking gears and is cleverly hidden in the body of the phone in a way that it is not visible from the outside, hence maintaining the seamless design of the device.
Samsung says that it will make the device available in select markets across the globe and the device will start selling from April of this year. The price of the Galaxy Fold is set at $1980(roughly ₹1,41,300) and will be offered in Green, Blue, Silver, and Black color options. Samsung also notes that the device will be available in both 4G LTE and 5G variant.
As for the availability, there is no detail from the company as to in which markets the device will be made available. Nevertheless, it is expected that the Galaxy Fold will be made available in all the major smartphone markets.
In terms of specifications, the company revealed that the Samsung Fold is powered by a 7nm processor, the name of which was not disclosed. It is likely that Samsung will go with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC for its foldable phone. The 7.3-inch Infinity Flex Dynamic AMOLED panel boasts of a resolution of 1536×2152 pixels (4.2:3), whereas the smaller 4.6-inch Super AMOLED panel includes 840×1960 pixels resolution (21:9). The smartphone also features 12GB of RAM and 512GB of onboard storage which is not expandable. Samsung has included two batteries that are placed on the side of the phone combining a total capacity of 4,380mAh.
At the camera front, the Samsung Galaxy Fold comes with a total of six cameras three are placed on the back, two on the inside, and one on the front. The rear cameras are compromised of a 16-megapixel ultra-wide camera with an f/2.2 aperture, a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera, with Dual Pixel AF, OIS, and variable f/1.5 to f/2.4 aperture; and finally, a 12-megapixel telephoto camera with PDAF, OIS, an f/2.4 aperture, and 2X optical zoom.
The front dual camera unit features a 10-megapixel f/2.2 primary sensor and an 8-megapixel RBG depth camera with an f/1.9 aperture. Lastly, the cover camera is a 10-megapixel selfie camera with an f/2.2 aperture.
Samsung says that it has placed the camera on the device in a way that no matter how a user is holding the phone, they will have a camera available for snapping pictures whenever needed.
Samsung has also given special attention to the software of the device. The Galaxy Fold runs on Android 9.0 Pie which has been customized in order to make up for the vast real-state of the device. The Galaxy Fold can run three apps simultaneously on the large 7.3-inch display and also features App Continuity in order to provide a seamless transition from the smaller screen to the larger and vice versa.
Samsung says that it has worked extensively with Google and the developer community at large to ensure the seamless experience on the Galaxy Fold. Apps like WhatsApp, YouTube, and Microsoft Office have been optimized to work great on the Samsung phone.
Samsung is the first smartphone manufacturer to launch its foldable smartphone, nevertheless, other smartphone companies like LG, Xiaomi, Huawei are already working on their respective foldable smartphones, some of which could be debuted at the MWC 2019.
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