Samsung Galaxy Fold: A foldable phone that proved us all wrong

Looks like I was wrong. Samsung had kicked off this morning’s Galaxy Unpacked event by unveiling the Galaxy Fold. This is Samsung’s foldable smartphone that can seamlessly transform into a large screen tablet.

When the device is folded, the Galaxy Fold is a rather long device and it has a 4.6″ HD+ Super AMOLED cover display. Once it is open, you’ll see a 7.3″ AMOLED Infinity Flex display that comes in a 4.2:3 aspect ratio.

Behind the flexible display is a mechanical hinge that allows it to open smoothly and naturally as if you’re opening a book. The Galaxy Fold also supports app continuity where you can seamlessly push your active app onto a bigger screen and you can run up to 3 different apps in a single view.

The Galaxy Fold gets the best specs possible on a smartphone. Under the hood, it runs on a top of the line 7nm processor (highly likely Snapdragon 855) with 12GB of RAM and it has 512GB of internal UFS 3.0 storage. The device also comes with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and it is powered by a large 4,380mAh battery which you can charge both wired and wirelessly.

There are a total of 6 cameras on the device so that you can capture moments in any situation. At the rear, it gets a triple-camera setup offering 12MP Wide, 16MP Ultra-Wide and 12MP Telephoto, while on the inside, it gets dual front-facing cameras (10MP + 8MP) on the Infinity Flex display. The front cover also comes with a single 10MP selfie camera.

The Galaxy Fold is priced from US$1,980 which is about RM8,051. The Galaxy Fold will be available in the second quarter of 2019. The foldable device is available in Space Silver, Cosmos Black, Martian Green and Astro Blue.

When Samsung introduced theirfoldable concept smartphone three months ago, it looks far from ready. I was guessing that it would probably take at least six months before they could come out with a viable product for the masses. With the Galaxy Fold, this shows that Samsung is able to move very quickly to turn an idea into a reality. While the execution is cool, the question still remains, is there a genuine need for a foldable smartphone? Time will tell.