Samsung is still giving somewhat vague signals about when it will actually move forward with the release of what was supposed to have been one of the marquee consumer electronics launches of 2019 — the company’s much-hyped foldable smartphone. Now, some 45 days after the phone’s April 26 launch was scuttled in the wake of a slew of malfunctioning and broken devices, it seems at least a new launch announcement is imminent.
In an email to CNET, a Samsung spokesman confirmed a new announcement window for the Galaxy Fold relaunch: “We will announce timing in the coming weeks.”
Just a few days ago, we told you about a report that claimed Samsung’s first foldable will finally hit the market in July and possibly beat the Mate X to launch. Per Korean-language site NewsTomato, the South Korea-based tech giant will purportedly begin selling the Fold in July. This means we’re likely to see a press conference sometime this month during which the company would likely walk through what went wrong with the fragile first iteration of the device and how Samsung has worked to ensure the problems that cropped up the first time around won’t show up again.
The device already arguably had a high bar to cross on the road to mainstream acceptance of a nearly $2,000 handset with an unusual form factor beset by early problems like debris that could get inside the phone through gaps in the hinge mechanism. Complicating matters further, Best Buy recently canceled its Fold preorder sales, which means that anyone who still is desperate to get their hands on one of these devices will have to start the preorder process all over again once Samsung finally gets around to sharing a new launch date.
Still, it will be at least a somewhat interesting moment for the smartphone market once the Fold finally arrives, given that Huawei’s Mate X won’t be available stateside as a result of the US government’s current ban on Huawei. That means Samsung’s Galaxy Fold will earn the title of the first foldable smartphone to arrive in the US once it finally hits store shelves.
