I haven’t watched all of Samsung’s latest event but I did see the new Galaxy Fold, what a name… anyway a foldable $2000 smartphone is something I wanted to comment on.
My first impression when seeing it on the livestream was, wow that’s just two phones stuck together. It’s kind of cool to see something folding out to a bigger screen but this isn’t the implementation that makes sense to me. I’m sure on video I could see a folder or crease at the middle point that would just be distracting. I believe that sliding additional screen from the side is the way we’ll see this implementation. Think of a scroll that you roll out, not unlike the LG foldable TV that was announced earlier in the year at CES.
I’ve got to give it to Samsung for trying here and getting something out but it looks like a terrible implementation to my eyes.
Now with that price I have to think it’ll sell in the hundreds rather than millions here. Looking at the global smartphone slowdown this isn’t the answer, it’s high end luxury and the sales will show it. It’s a party piece to show off not something to use as a daily driver. However it’s good to get it out there and get some in the wild to see how it takes off and get some real world testing completed.
I’m not entirely sold that foldable is the future but whatever it is, this isn’t the end implementation. It’s a baby step, a stepping off point something that gets the technology into the hands of users that are willing to give it a go. For me it still looks like two phones stuck together, I’ll be waiting a while for the ‘scroll phone’.
