Slashdot Mirror
Samsung Announces the Galaxy Fold, a Phone That Opens Into a Tablet (venturebeat.com)
At an event today, Samsung unveiled its foldable smartphone. It's called the Galaxy Fold, and it sports dual screens: one that folds in half like a notebook, and another that works just like any other. From a report: The roughly 200-gram Galaxy Fold flips open in portrait orientation, and the inside is coated with a film that gives it a photopaper-like appearance. It's got a protective polymer consisting of a cover window, a shock-absorbent film, and a polarizer that's 45 percent slimmer than the company's previous thinnest, along with a flexible layer and backplane. Samsung says the tech -- dubbed Infinity Flex Display -- took seven years to develop. Thanks to a highly durable adhesive, the Fold's 7.3-inch primary screen and "sophisticated" hinge system with interlocking gears can undergo "hundreds of thousands" of flexes without sustaining damage, Samsung says. The 4.6-inch secondary screen doesn't bend, and that's by design -- it puts apps at your fingertips when the Fold's folded in half. [...] It's available in both an LTE and 5G version, starting at an eye-popping $1,980. April 26 is the launch date.
Too small when unfolded. 7.2 inches isn't really a tablet and won't be much more useful than my 6.3" galaxy 8+. This phone is what I've been waiting for and that blew it. Go big or go home.
I guess I will feed the troll - Jesus, dude, this is what site is all about - technology.
GTFO of here.
BookDetective.net - book search engine and ranker I donate my skills to.
It is like living in the future.
Exactly. This is technological innovation at its finest. It is amazing what the human race can accomplish.
I've been looking forward to something like this for a while, will be interesting to see how well that works in person.
Seems like it will be a kind of heavy device though with batteries on each side...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"Samsung says the tech -- dubbed Infinity Flex Display -- took seven years to develop." - And we've talked about it at least 7000 times since. "wow, fold your dick into your phone, amaaaaaazing"
Go fuck yourself, or find something shiny to put in your nest you boring magpies. You're breathless fangirls for $1200 gimmicks.
$1200? I pre-ordered one for $1980. Where did you see $1200?
Hooray! Finally screen large enough to be useful but not large enough that it couldn't be folded and easily carried around.
Shoulda been 2000. You sunk my typo battleship. Holy shit my life is over, I might as well cut my balls off and call myself Kendall now.
Too small when unfolded. 7.2 inches isn't really a tablet and won't be much more useful than my 6.3" galaxy 8+. This phone is what I've been waiting for and that blew it. Go big or go home.
This. I'm looking forward to this form factor of phone, but it may take a couple generations before there is one I would buy. The rumored 6.7" Galaxy S10 5g is likely my next phone. As soon as there is a 6.7" folded / 10.6" unfolded phone, or something similar, sign me up. Until then I'll be fine with the S10.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Uh NO!
I don't care how razor-thin the hinge is, that's two screens there, mate. + the other one.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
you seem to have wandered onto the wrong site by mistake. This is a technology news forum. Perhaps go find a site for luddites.
$1200? I pre-ordered one for $1980. Where did you see $1200?
Were you aware this wasn't a rotary phone before placing the order? Probably still time to cancel. :p
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
It's like someone said "Please list everything you would never want in a phone" and then priced it at "Please tell me what you would never pay for it".
The world does not need you.
Think of it as a foldable tablet that will replace your phone instead of a phone that becomes a tablet. I can see use in that. I never use my tablet because there are things a PC does better, and other things a phone is adequate for, and the phone is always charged and handy.
If my tablet folded and I could carry it around in my pocket instead of my phone... that's a good thing.
Not worth $2000 or even half that much to me- but it's still a good development. Give it a few years, apple will come out with one and be praised in the media for innovating and developing a new tech category and for keeping the price reasonable at $3000.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Exactly what I'm waiting for. That's a real tablet. Until it's a decent size when unfolded, it's just another gimmick. Sadly, it seems they've missed their real market on this: nobody that will shell out $2k is looking for a small 4.6" phone. Big when folded, giant when unfolded is what will sell. They blew it.
So it can be twice as explosive!
*ducks*
Samsung is the world's leader when it comes to graphene patents and commercial research and foldable screens was considered a killer app for graphene to make it's big splash. Given how advanced Samsung is when it comes to graphene research and they didn't go this route (this phone is OLED) shows that there's no future for graphene or other electronic materials in this application.
I agree.
Exactly what I'm waiting for. That's a real tablet. Until it's a decent size when unfolded, it's just another gimmick. Sadly, it seems they've missed their real market on this: nobody that will shell out $2k is looking for a small 4.6" phone. Big when folded, giant when unfolded is what will sell. They blew it.
Hopefully this is just an effort for them to stay on top as far as innovative phones. I just hope they don't scrap the idea if it doesn't sell well. Get it out there, get some QA help from the few early adopters, and then the Samsung Fold 3+ is an amazing phone. [crosses fingers]
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Nobody asked for the breathless yet boring fangirl faggot perspective, sorry. You have no idea what interesting means. Your life is both pointless and worthless.
Being that it is more of a square layout, gives you more pixels to work with then with the rectangle phone layout. Part of the reason why Monitors jumped to be 16:9 vs the old 4:3 is for LCD display in particular, it is cheaper to make larger screens. Because they are less pixels per diagonal inch.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
"Yeah, that should stop the malware-phones-home-by-default-in-apps-you-can't-delete problem."
With attitudes like that we'd be all chipping away at stone tablets still.
When we look back at history we see changes in decades or centuries. The stupid ideas get forgotten, while the good ideas have been deeply understood.
We look at the 20th century we See the human race go from horses, to Autombiles, Aircraft, and Spaceships that can get to the moon. Transportation seemed to be the big thing the 20th century, Now for the 21st right now it seems like communication and computing is the big deal. We are only 1/5 threw the 21st century.
We started out with Cell phones that had Digital Voice Service, to ones that can run applications, and had basic internet connectivity, We then got the smart phone, with a more processing power then most of the computers we had in the year 2000. People now have their phone on them nearly all the time, one of the least used feature on the phone, is actually talking to an other person, but communicating over texting, and messaging. When we run into information we don't know what is about we look it up.
Now there are problems with the technology much like problems with transportation technologies last century. We are having problems with Misinformation, differentiating opinion (like from me, as I had done NO RESEARCH ON THIS), from fact with real research. Being that we can communicate with anyone, we have fallen into finding like minded people, which as made us closed minded, because now there are the others who disagree with us. These are problems that need to be addressed, however who knows, that little extra screen real estate can be part of the problem, or part of the solution.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I guess it just goes to show preferences - I prefer smaller phones and tablets so these sizes would be about perfect for me. But there's no way in hell I'm paying $2000 for it. It's an interesting first try though.
Part of the problem with Tablets is that they are too big to carry with you, the problem with a Phone, is the screen size is limited. Now if this technology works really well, this could change the market. For the last 11 years everyone was making rectangular glass phones to mimic the iPhone design as much as they can get away with (sometimes crossing the line, the round cornered line). Now if this technology proves itself, now a lot of Phone Companies (including Apple) will need to play catch up. When Apple released the iPhone, it really put other phone makers back to the drawing board, and took them a couple of years to catch up.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I like this way of thinking... It's a tablet that will replace my phone. The moment I saw it my Lizard Brain said "Must Have", then I saw the price and my Wallet Brain said "Wait a few years...", then my Nerd Brain asked "Can I root it and put Lineage on it?" Doing anything other than talking on the current gens of even Phablets is a pain (Im sporting a V30), they are too large to be easily portable, and too small to be useful. I think that as this type of device progress's it will be very popular.
Which is exactly the same with phones. The recent craze of "bigger screens" hasn't actually been larger screens, it's just been different shapes, the screen aspect ratio these days is 2:1 or in some cases even narrower (I've seen 19:9) It's pure marketing, screens are measured diagonally, and the narrower and taller the display, the larger that number appears for the same number of pixels. And worse yet, the usable area is smaller than before because we're now back to watching movies with black bars on the sides, playing games with black bars on the sides, and trying to read text that's like an old fashioned newspaper column (2 words wide, 50 lines long)
Now a 7.2 inch square, that's probably useful, though there are a bunch of other UI/usability issues to be considered first.
I'd say the big reason that monitors went from 4:3 to 16:9 was because of HD tv taking over from SD. If television programing stayed in the 4:3 format then monitors would have stayed in the 4:3 format as well. No sense making two different aspect ratio LCD screens when you can just use the same panels for monitors or televisions.
Think of it as a foldable tablet that will replace your phone instead of a phone that becomes a tablet. I can see use in that. I never use my tablet because there are things a PC does better, and other things a phone is adequate for, and the phone is always charged and handy.
If my tablet folded and I could carry it around in my pocket instead of my phone... that's a good thing.
Why? Even ignoring cost, the PC isn't replaced, and you still need a phone.
I see this (slightly) extending the same "luxury phone" market segment as the Galaxy Note series. The Fold's screen isn't that much bigger, and both lack a physical keyboard.
Also notable: I can't (quickly) find its weight, and it sorta looks like a Nintendo DS, but I suppose nobody remembers side-talking.
ceci n'est pas un sig.
Given that Apple's sales are way down for their high-end phones, to the point where they are openly talking about having to reduce prices, I think your information may be a little out of date.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
We've been stuck with 16:9 ever since. Shame they didn't choose 5:3 instead, which was the format of French Cinema and Japanase analog HDTV.
I wouldn't mind if 5:3 was an option on laptop and desktop. If you want to watch with no black bars cropping from 1.7777... to 1.666.... would be good enough.
Well, that is /exactly/ what Samsung showed in their closing "concept video"... The foldable device that this should have been. S10 screen on the front, Fold screen on the inside.
... while this abomination is a way too large and too heavy phablet that you can unfold into a tablet.
Wake me when there are actually small devices that unfold into a normal size smartphone.
Remember the Blackberry Passport? I never had one and never will, but maybe it was a good idea or attempt (esp. if the keyboard is useful to you and content isn't jumping or covered by the software keyboard all the time). OR it can be a bad example of too big to be useful, too small to be useful.
You're all missing the fact that the unfolded display is entirely different aspect ratio (4.2:3), so at 7.2" is a waaay bigger display than on the regular phones.
It's a bit rough (I'd definitely want a bigger outside display, slightly thinner body and no notch on the inside, cameras be damned) but for a first gen of such a device I think they did a pretty good job, hopefully it sells enough that they continue developing the concept.
There would be whining, but from people who don't use Apple products. The Apple users, or the richer among them, would buy.
16:9 is a shit resolution for anything other than HD TV content and it’s not even great for that purpose since a lot of films end up getting letterboxed since they’re not natively 16:9. At least you can buy 16:10 monitors. I still use 4:3 monitors for secondary displays. Anything I’d want to do on them would be wasted on anything wider. I know some people turn the sideways so you’ve essentially got a 9:16 which is actually pretty decent for a lot of documents.
If Apple made one, people wouldn't hesitate to drop $2000 for it.
If Apple made one, it would be WORTH $2000.
BIG Difference!
This is the first phone that ever tempted me to buy into Android.
Nice implementation in theory, moving parts are always a problem and dust / crud / moisture will collect in there... maybe it has a full tough gel skin that I can't see, that would allay my fears of infiltration...
You bought this? LOLzzzzz!!!!!!
Your balls need to be cut off because you lack common sense.
You're all missing the fact that the unfolded display is entirely different aspect ratio (4.2:3), so at 7.2" is a waaay bigger display than on the regular phones.
I don't really see anyone missing that, since when everyone is talking about the unfolded display they are comparing it to tablets which have a more similar aspect ratio. The fact remains that the 7.2" unfolded display would be a very small tablet. That doesn't make it a horrible product (mini-tablets sell) just not what I or other similar people are looking for. Hopefully in a couple more releases.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Big when folded, giant when unfolded is what will sell.
Even better: small when folded, giant when unfolded. I'd like a phone that lets you unfold it at least 3 times, doubling the screen area with each unfold. Or maybe unroll a rolled-up screen, like this one.
That's large enough I think it would be really nice for reading, and certainly a lot easier to carry around than a small tablet.
I could also see it being more useful for things like video/photo editing, especially if software was optimized to take advantage of both sides.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I need to see it in person, as from the video it appears to be big, heavy, and fat.
It’s over twice the thickness as a standard phone, as you’ll notice late in the video that the hinge side doesn’t fold completely flat. Guess that’s the only way to avoid a crease in the screen.
Be interesting trying to pocket this thing.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
A trim-fold with that technology would be a brick, almost 4x the thickness of a modern slab phone.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
"If my tablet folded and I could carry it around in my pocket instead of my phone... that's a good thing."
It’s over twice the thickness as a standard phone, as you’ll notice late in Samsung's video that the hinge side doesn’t fold completely flat. Guess that’s the only way to avoid a crease in the screen.
Trying to pocket it will be interesting, and there's no way I'd ever put it into a back pocket where sitting down could put significant pressure on that hinge.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
If Apple had made it a decade ago, when they cared about quality, it would be worth $2000. This decade... there've been so many cases where it was blatantly obvious that they didn't care about quality, that I wouldn't pay a two cent bonus for "Apple standing behind it".
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
LOL, other than uber geeks, the hollyweird types, what nut in their right mind will spend THAT for a gimmick?
One thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars?
How about one thousand nine hundred and go f*** yourself with a retractable cattle prod.
Yeah, sorry but no way I'm gonna spend almost $2000 on a phone.
If you want to drop that much on a phone, be my guest, but at that price the whole idea is a total no-go for me.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
On a technology side, we should be celebrating Samsung trying to innovate.
With all new technological implementations the initial price is high. We've known this forever. Why be surprised and so hateful? Criticism is one thing, but the amount of disdain here has crossed the line from constructive criticism to ... Something approaching hate. And not just hate for Samsung or the product, but hate or disgust or disdain for those willing and able to take a chance on such 1st generation of a consumer technology.
Talk about first world problems. Oh no! They didn't make exactly what I wanted! How dare anyone find it appealing!
Get over yourselves. Be glad that someone is trying to innovate in a new direction. That they are willing to take risks. Not just with a new technology and new solutions, but with something they know will be out of reach of the majority of consumers.
>Yeah they would hesitate
>/. is iphone hate
You can't swing a cat in here without hitting a "techie" who still hasn't figured out how to disable quotemark hijacking.
Reaction 1. "Fuck! Will I finally have to switch to Android?!! I hate Samsung for doing this to me." ... like forever! I'll also pay obscene amount of money and justify it. Until then, I'll damn Samsung for the phone being too big, too shitty, too pricey ..."
Reaction 2. "I'll just wait until Apple comes up with something similar and then claim that to be the best thing since
Reaction 3. "Meh!" (secretly watches all youtube videos of Galaxy Fold)
The foldability is the one interesting thing about this product. It will sell just because of this feature, meaning that we will quickly find out how durable this screen is in the field.
"If my tablet folded and I could carry it around in my pocket instead of my phone... that's a good thing."
It’s over twice the thickness as a standard phone, as you’ll notice late in Samsung's video that the hinge side doesn’t fold completely flat. Guess that’s the only way to avoid a crease in the screen.
Trying to pocket it will be interesting, and there's no way I'd ever put it into a back pocket where sitting down could put significant pressure on that hinge.
A phone being "too thick" has never been a concern of mine. "Normal phones" are half the thickness of the original smart phones now, and no-one ever thought they were too thick back in the day.
Thickness of a phone hasn't been a problem for over a decade.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
When Apple had an iPad that folded, people complained. Now that Samsung is doing it, people are cheering.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
4.2:3, why not express it as 1.4:1 if it's not integer anyway? Or will Huawei then make a twice as big 7.2" screen, because it will be 8.4:6?