Samsung Foldable Phone’s First Look Is 'Wow'

On Wednesday, at its fifth annual developer conference, Samsung gave us the first look of its foldable phone. Samsung senior vice president of mobile marketing Justin Denison showed off the handset.

The phone uses Infinity Flex Display, a new screen technology, which Denison mentioned as representing “an entirely new mobile platform”. The technology allows users to open or close the phone repeatedly without any harm to the device.

As shown by Denison, Samsung’s upcoming foldable device is a phone when it’s closed and a tablet when it’s wide opened. He also stated that this is not the final product and that Samsung would not reveal details of the technology too soon.

At the conference, Denison said that the world now is a place where the largest screen is just as wide as the device’s front. He added that the company is also developing stretchable and rollable screens.

Glen Murphy, Google’s head of Android UX, also came to stage and announced Google would support the new display technology.

Moreover, that Samsung offered a new dimension that lets you watch, browse and multitask. What Denison was talking about is Multi-Active Window which allows at most three times to run at the same time.

The giant has been pursuing the foldable phone ambition since 2013 when it unveiled a flexible OLED screen.

However, this handset shows up at a difficult time with Samsung and Apple’s mobile phone sales slowing down, as well as the world mobile market is in a recession. Though foldable devices can be a huge step for phones, hopefully, they will not be too gimmicky.

Samsung’s mobile business CEO D.J. Koh declared that the phone will not be a gimmick product which disappears just a few months after its launch. He clearly stated that when a foldable phone is delivered, it must have actual merits.

Phone specs

The device at folded stage features a 4.58-inch display with a screen-to-body ratio of 21:9. Its resolution will be 840x1960, featuring 420 dpi of screen density.

Jisun Park, engineering director and head of the system software group for Samsung's mobile business, said the folded screen will be handier and more focused, allowing quick access and interaction. Unfolding the screen will turn off the Cover Display and it’ll go black.

The Main Display which shows up when users unfold the phone is 7.3 inches with the aspect ratio of 4.2:3. The unfolded screen will feature 1536x2152 resolution, 420dpi of screen density.

Park said that the Main Display provides more information along with visual cues. He stressed that it’s important for Samsung to have developers build its ecosystem to optimize benefits of the multiple-screen feature.

According to Claus Enevoldsen, Flipboard’s marketing executive, the company is working to improve Samsung’s upcoming foldable phone.

He said that at the folded stage, the phone will illustrate information on its single pane like in a normal phone. When the phone is unfolded, users can continue right where they left off.

Samsung said the phone will go in mass production in the coming months.