Samsung said to launch smartphone with foldable display this year

Samsung has been experimenting with foldable/flexible displays for quite some time, showing off its new technology at trade shows for a number of years now. However, now things appear to be at a point where Samsung can release a tangible product using its flexible display tech, with rumours this week indicating that Samsung will be releasing a ‘Galaxy X' later this year.

We initially heard about the Galaxy X in May last year, when reports indicated that we would see the first flexible display smartphone from Samsung in 2017. Well, we are now much closer to that happening, with sources speaking with The Korean Herald claiming that Samsung is “highly likely” to reveal the Galaxy X in Q3 2017, though it will only be manufacturing 100,000 units at first.

Given that the IFA conference takes place in September towards the end of Q3, it is possible that we will see the Galaxy X/Project Valley unveiling at that event later this year. However, there are some new interesting details in the report that we had not heard before.

How is Samsung going to put its foldable displays to good use? Well according to the report, Samsung's Galaxy X may feature a fold-out design, transforming it from a standard smartphone into a 7-inch tablet. Samsung apparently initially began developing this product as a tablet with a ‘fold inward' design, meaning you would have to fold up the tablet whenever you wanted to make a phone call. This idea was then reversed to turn the Galaxy X into a phone first and a tablet second.

KitGuru Says: We already know that LG is very close to being able to mass produce its own flexible displays, so competition won't be too far behind when Samsung introduces the Galaxy X. Hopefully this shake up can make the smartphone market exciting again.

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