Earlier this month, Samsung unveiled a bunch of new Infinity display variations, including the Infinity-O screen we expect to see on mid-range phones and on the upcoming Galaxy S10 flagship, but also the Infinity Flex screen suspected to be featured on the company’s first-ever foldable smartphone.
It all happened at Samsung’s developer conference, where Samsung also announced its new user interface that will power all its devices, including the foldable handset. What Samsung didn’t tell us at the time is what the foldable phone will be called, or when it’ll launch, but a new report offers us two possible names for the handset.
Buried in a Wall Street Journal story that focuses mostly on the 5G version of the Galaxy S10, which is expected to be Samsung’s best S10 version next year, is this paragraph:
Separately, Samsung is also set to release early next year its first ever foldable-screen device, which opens like a book and boasts a 7.3-inch display. Internally, Samsung executives are debating the foldable phone’s name, with ‘Samsung Flex’ and the ‘Galaxy Flex’ emerging as two candidates, though the decision is far from final, according to a person familiar with the matter.
We saw a large number of reports in the past two years detailing the imminent launch of Samsung’s foldable handset, but Samsung kept postponing the announcement. We referred to the phone as Galaxy X at first, and then Galaxy F, although Samsung never confirmed either one. “Samsung Flex” and “Galaxy Flex” both make plenty of sense for the handset, especially the latter. “Galaxy” is Samsung’s strongest mobile brand, and it would be strange to see Samsung not include the foldable phone, which is still an Android device, as part of the line.
Also, WSJ notes that the foldable device should arrive in early 2019, but doesn’t provide a specific release date. An earlier report claimed that both the Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy F should launch by March. A different report said that Samsung’s mobile division is under internal pressure to deliver innovations with the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy F, following the less than spectacular sales of this year’s top Samsung phones. With that in mind, it makes sense to assume that Samsung would want to bring both handsets to market as fast as possible.
The report also says that Samsung is planning a mid-February press conference where it could launch at least “the feature-heavy” 5G Galaxy S10. The Galaxy F may have been shown off at SDC18, but the phone will surely get a proper announcement event next year. It’s unclear at this time whether Samsung will unveil the Galaxy F and Galaxy S10 at the same time, or whether it’ll host separate keynotes for the two phones. MWC 2019, which takes place in late February in Barcelona, might be where at least one of the two handsets is unveiled.
