Samsung’s first folding smartphone to be released in 2017

A report said Samsung will release a dual-screen phone to gauge support for folding handsets before launching one with a flexible OLED display.

Samsung has been teasing a smartphone with a folding OLED display since releasing
this promotional video in 2014 (Source: Samsung)

A few companies have been working on foldable phones for a while. Samsung was one of the earliest to generate buzz in this area a couple years ago with a video it posted online. It looks like the company is finally close to releasing such a product. A report from the Korean news site Electronic Times said Samsung might release two different folding smartphones with the first to be introduced in 2017.

One of the smartphones will have dual screens and will fold shut in the middle, making it more like a mini laptop. The other handset will have the much-coveted folding OLED display. Samsung will only produce a small number of the dual-screen phones for a 2017 release, according to Electronic Times. This will allow the South Korea company to see how much demand there is for a folding phone as well as teach consumers why they might want one in the first place.

This strategy does not sound that different from the "concept phone" strategy that Xiaomi used recently for its Mi Mix handset. That phone was also seen as a brazen bet on a new form factor that might not be ready for primetime. It did not stop Xiaomi, though, and many reviewers praised the company for what might be its first truly innovative smartphone with the product’s edge-to-edge display. No one was willing to say the device was in the same tier as the iPhone 7 or Pixel XL, but an innovative design does not necessarily mean the best performance. Xiaomi had not been part of the innovation conversation before, however. Now, it looks like the China company is also working on flexible displays.

Samsung might be hoping to push itself back into that conversation with a folding smartphone. The Galaxy handsets were innovative early on by going larger than the competition and eventually introducing stylus support with the Galaxy Note phones. Samsung's status took a hit this year, though, when hundreds of Note 7 phones started catching fire. The resulting recall was a blow to the top Android smartphone maker. Consumers and analysts alike are now watching Samsung to see what kind of bold steps it might take in 2017 to emerge from its 2016 blunder. Samsung's need to prove itself once again might show other makers the way forward as well. Samsung is not the only company looking for ways to keep smartphones fresh.

Source