Samsung for years now has been in news to be working on foldable devices. The company has filed multiple applications to register patents for such devices, triggering speculations about foldable smartphones becoming reality sooner or later. Just a few days ago, we learnt about a Samsung patent for a flexible display that is supported by a mechanical hinge. Also, for about a year, the Galaxy X1 and Galaxy X1 Plus have been expected to be Samsung’s first commercial devices to feature a foldable display, and be launched by 2017. And now, stepping up close to the fire that sourced the smoke all these years, a new rumor and SamMobile reveals that Samsung may showcase a few foldable smartphones at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017; although behind closed doors.
A closed door unveiling means, Samsung would choose its audience and unveil the device only to those few people, insisting for the information to not be shared until Samsung says so. Well, this surely trumps all the excitement for the Galaxy Tab S3, which is also scheduled to be unveiled at the event.
Now, as for the foldable device, if they reveal the Galaxy X1 and Galaxy X1 Plus, we already have a bunch of rumors around the devices. Earlier last month, there was an apparent leak that claimed to reveal some details of the two handsets.
According to a listing, the the Galaxy X1 would run on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out-of-the-box, whereas the Galaxy X1 Plus will get the updated Android Nougat out-of-the-box. Apart from this, the latest leak doesn’t really reveal anything more about the devices.
Based on the patent filed by Samsung, the Galaxy X is expected to come with “flexible” or “secondary” display. According to the patent, the secondary display turns on when the smartphone has been folded. The patent sketches reveal that the smartphone has a bendable section in the middle, allowing users to fold the smartphone like a flip phone. The patent further reveals that the smartphone will sport a physical home button up front, and power and volume buttons on the right edge.
On the other hand, there was another leak, just a few days after the one above, which claimed that instead of folding in, the flexible display on the Samsung Galaxy X1 and Galaxy X1 Plus, will fold outwards.
According to a report by The Korean Herald, the foldable smartphone would feature a full display on the front which stretches on to the back as well. The fold-out smartphone could further be turned into a 7-inch tablet when unfolded. The report also says that Samsung began developing on this technology way back since August 2016, citing reasons of inconvenience for its users to unfold the phone every time they have to use it. In fact, the new design of folding the display seems rather interesting as it would play the role of both of a smartphone and a tablet. The smartphone when unfolded would turn into a tablet, making it useful for watching movies, videos, reading or playing games.
The report further quoted a source saying that Samsung would be rolling out more than 100,000 units of its fold-out smartphone in the third quarter of 2017, which does dovetail the recent news of unveiling at MWC.
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