It wasn’t the most tight-lipped of secrets in the tech world – but last night Samsung unwrapped the Samsung Galaxy Fold, its first proper foldable phone.
This is not to be confused with the device that Samsung showed us November, which did fold but was a prototype.
The official Galaxy Fold has a 4.6-inch secondary AMOLED display on the outside, which when unfolded become a 7.3-inch Infinity Flex AMOLED screen. That’s the good news. The bad? When it arrives on April 26th it will cost US$1,980 (that’s an eye-watering AED7,270).
The first screen (we’re going to refer to it as the little one, despite being part of a larger whole when unfolded) is at a ratio of 21:9 at 1,960 x 840 resolution. The large screen will come in at 2,152 x 1,536 pixels. For not tech-heads, that means the screen is razer sharp.
Samsung has said its foldable smartphone has been tested to last more than 200,000 folds (which turns out to be something like 100 folds every day for the next five years). Handly.
When folded, the device measures 17mm think (for comparison, the new iPhone XS is 7.7mm thick), but once fully unfolded will be a slim 6.9mm.
Elsewhere you get not one, not two but six cameras. Why so many? Samsung has included them just about everywhere on the device, so you get a snapper no matter how you’ve decided to use the device – open or shut.
The main three cameras include a 16MP ultra-wide angle, a 12MP telephoto camera with optical stabilization and a 12MP dual-pixel wide camera with optical images stabilization. You get two selfie cams on the bigger screen – a 10MP and an 8MP depth camera.
Samsung was tight-lipped about what powers the fold, but it looks like a 64-bit octa-core processor, along with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage space. Those are pretty good specs (and what you’d expect for paying that type of money for a smartphone). You also get a hefty 4,380 mAh battery which is split in two – half and half.
Speaking of the battery, you get wireless charging as well as ‘Wireless Powershare’ meaning you can use it to wirelessly charge your other devices.
All in all, it looks like the Samsung Galaxy Fold looks to be a highly polished device. All things considered – and keeping in mind this is one of the first proper foldable phones on the market – it looks mighty good indeed.
The only problem here is the price. Almost US$2,000 is a lot to spend on a first-of-its-kind device. But if you do want a smartphone that turns into an even bigger tablet, then Samsung really has cornered the market.
