Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are spectacular flagship smartphones, as we discussed in our in-depth review. The upcoming Galaxy Note 9 is shaping up to be equally impressive, if not more so — especially is Samsung managed to pull off the in-display fingerprint sensor that has been swirling around the rumor mill. But there’s another upcoming Samsung phone that gadget fans are even more excited about, and for good reason. Samsung is supposedly working on an upcoming handset that may launch as the Galaxy X, and it will be the company’s first phone with a foldable display. The phone will supposedly feature a large 7.3-inch Super AMOLED screen, but it will still be pocketable thanks to a form factor that allows the device to be folded in half, screen and all.
The Galaxy X may end up being Samsung’s first phone with a foldable screen, but according to a new report out of South Korea, another big name in the smartphone industry will launch a handset with a foldable display long before Samsung.
Samsung has on multiple occasions confirmed that it’s working on a smartphone with a foldable display. In fact, company executives at one point said they were aiming for a 2018 release. Unfortunately, subsequent reports revealed that manufacturing issues will prevent the so-called Galaxy X from materializing this year, and we’re likely now looking at a 2019 launch.
Elsewhere in the industry, however, another company is apparently on track to release a phone with a foldable display before Samsung. ETNews reports that Chinese smartphone maker is currently quite far along with development of its own folding phone, and it plans to release the device this coming November.
That would indeed make Huawei the first smartphone maker with release a handset with a display that can be folded and unfolded. Several vendors currently sell phones with displays that are flexible. All of Samsung’s recent Galaxy S and Galaxy Note phones include flexible Super AMOLED screens, and Apple’s iPhone X has a display that folds under itself inside the phone so that the display controller can be hidden without the need for a bottom bezel. None of those phones have displays that can repeatedly be folded and unfolded, though.
Unfortunately, no other details about Huawei’s upcoming foldable phone were provided in the ETNews report.
Thanks to pressure from the White House over spying concerns that are entirely baseless, Huawei phones are no longer sold by any wireless carriers or big-name electronics retailers in the US. As a result, it’s unlikely that Huawei’s first foldable phone will be widely available here. That said, we recently told you how to preorder Huawei’s hot new Android phone that Trump’s administration doesn’t want you to have.
We have a long way to go before November rolls around. In the meantime, here’s a video that shows off a prototype of a device with an OLED display that can be repeatedly folded and unfolded:
