Last week saw Samsung unveiling its foldable phone at its developer conference. We did get a first look at the much talked about device and now we know for sure that it’s real, but then, the technology giant has revealed very limited information about it.
We would have to wait for future updates from the company to know more, but as of now, we have pulled together all the information we could to list down everything that you should know about Samsung’s foldable phone. Check out our list now:
What is a foldable phone?
According to Samsung, it’s foldable phone is a device that looks like a tablet when fully opened and acts like a phone when folded inwards from the centre. The newly unveiled device by Samsung comes with a cellular connection. It is worth noticing that Royole’s FlexPai, which is also a foldable device, has an outward folding display, unlike Samsung’s which folds inwards.
The name of the device
As of now, there is no official word about Samsung’s foldable phone’s name. However, reports online point towards two names – Samsung Galaxy F and Samsung Galaxy X. But then, we cannot confirm anything till the company makes the device’s name official.
The display
There are two displays on Samsung’s foldable phone. The cover display is 4.58 inches in size and has an aspect ratio of 21:9. The screen has an 840×1960 resolution and comes with a density of 420 dpi. It can be used when the device is folded into a candybar phone. The main display of the device is 7.3 inches and comes with an aspect ratio of 4.2:3. It has a pixel resolution of 1536×2152 and comes with a display density of 420 dpi.
But those are just the specifications. Samsung has actually created a new display for its device and is called it the Infinity Flex Display. Any smartphone’s display is made up of several layers. However, they usually cannot move. In its Infinity Flex Display, Samsung has used a new adhesive in order to coat the layers of the screen in a way that they can fold a “hundreds of thousands of times.”
The battery life
According to Samsung’s Jisun Park, the company intends to give its foldable device a battery that lasts longer than its current Galaxy smartphones. And Samsung wants to achieve this in spite of accommodating a bigger and more active screen that is bound to drain more battery.
The operating system
The foldable phone wasn’t the only new thing that Samsung spoke about last week. The South Korean technology giant also unveiled the redesigned version of its custom software. Called One UI, the operating system is based on Android and will be used on the foldable phone as well as all other future Samsung smartphones. The One UI beta will be made available by the company this month, but only for Android Pie users.
The apps
Samsung was very careful at its developer conference to not speak too much about the device. So as of now, we know very little about the apps that we would be able to use on Samsung’s foldable phone. It would be safe to assume that Google’s suite of apps would be present along with some apps made by Samsung like SmartThings. Besides these, we know that Flipboard will be present on the device. While currently there is no word on what other apps will be available on Samsung’s foldable phone, we can expect some popular ones to be there are the device’s key feature is its ability to multitask. In the tablet mode, users can run up to three apps at once, according to Samsung.
What happens to an app that is running on the device when you fold it?
The device will automatically transfer the app or the screen the user is looking at to the other display. So if you are using an app in tablet mode and you close the phone, the same screen will start reflecting on the device’s second display.
The advantage
The main advantage of a Samsung’s foldable phone is that you get a lot of extra screen space. And let’s face it: A 7.3-inch display does offer a lot more space than what we get otherwise from smartphones. And another key advantage is the multitasking that the company promises. The foldable phone by Samsung is said to have the ability to run three apps at once or let users access more features of a particular app at once. We consider both of these as important benefits that the users can get from the phone.
When will Samsung’s foldable phone will finally be launched?
Reports have surfaced online that claim that Samsung’s foldable device will be launched along with its Galaxy S10 lineup in 2019. The device that we saw last week was only a prototype and the foldable phone is also expected to be there at CES 2019. There is no word regarding the sales of the phone yet, but company has said that it will begin mass production in “coming months.”
The competition
The era of foldable phones has officially begun. The ZTE Axon M and Royole FlexPai are already there and other players like LG and Huawei are also working on their foldable phones.
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