All the folding smartphones you need to know about The future unfolds: All the folding smartphones you need to know about

All the folding smartphones you need to know about

The future unfolds: All the folding smartphones you need to know about

Over the coming year, and beyond, we’re going to see smartphone design as we know it evolve. Through the use of flexible screen technology, flexible batteries, and new ways of using established materials, the smartphone and tablet will become one. The end result is currently referred to as a folding smartphone, where a small, phone-sized device folds out to reveal a larger screen.

Many manufacturers are pushing to be among the first to launch one of these potentially groundbreaking products. We’re excited about them, and we know you are too. Want to get ahead of the crowd and keep up to date with which companies are working on what?

We’ve pulled together all the announced folding smartphone plans, along with all the rumors.

SAMSUNG

When you think about folding smartphones today, you likely think of Samsung, as it has been developing a folding or flexible smartphone for years. The result of its hard work will possibly be revealed on February 20 with the Galaxy S10. We don’t know what the device will be called or exactly how it will look, but there have been plenty of rumors and teasers circulating over the past months.

Expect Samsung’s folding smartphone to have two screens, which will measure 4.6 inches folded up, and 7.3 inches when unfolded, and an almost bezel-less body. Cameras taken from the forthcoming Galaxy S10 may also feature, along with a Snapdragon 855 processor, a pair of batteries, and a special user interface made for the foldable hardware. There may even be a 5G version of the device.

Everything else, from the launch and release date, to the name and the eventual price is unknown. We don’t expect it to be cheap though, just like all foldable smartphones released in 2019. However, simply from the amount of time Samsung has spent working on a foldable device, we’ve got very high hopes for it.

HUAWEI

Although Samsung may end up being first to announce a folding smartphone, Huawei may be hot on its heels. The company has already started teasing its own folding smartphone for Mobile World Congress 2019, and a press conference to be held on February 24. Huawei hasn’t kept quiet about the project either, revealing not only that the device is coming, but also that it will have 5G connectivity. We know even less about Huawei’s folding smartphone than we do about Samsung’s. The good thing is, we don’t have long to wait until we find out a lot more.

LG

LG’s track record with flexible screens is as interesting as Samsung’s, having released two devices with flexible screens, but not bodies, in the past — the G Flex and the G Flex 2. Rumors spread about an LG flexible smartphone towards the end of 2018, and it was suggested that the company might show such a phone at CES 2019. This wasn’t the case, and because LG has never officially commented on such a device, we don’t know if one is still coming, or if it ever was in the first place.

However, there’s no question that LG has the technical ability to build one, and is almost certainly watching the growing interest in the new type of design.