Samsung Says Its Foldable Phone Will Be a Tablet You Can Put In Your Pocket

The CEO of Samsung's mobile business, D.J. Koh, said you'll be able to use its upcoming foldable smartphone as a tablet that you can put in your pocket. While the phone has been teased and hyped up for several months, Koh stressed that it will not be a "gimmick product" that will "disappear after six to nine months after it's delivered." It'll reportedly be available globally. CNET reports: However, the foldable Samsung phone, like the Galaxy Round, will be Samsung's testbed device to see how reviewers and the market react. The Galaxy Round, which bowed vertically in the middle, was Samsung's first curve-screen phone. It's a direct ancestor to the dual curved screens we see on today's Galaxy S9 and Note 9 phones. The larger screen is important, Koh said. When Samsung first released the original Galaxy Note, he said, competitors called its device dead on arrival. Now, after generations of Notes phones, you see larger devices like the iPhone XS Max and the Pixel 3 XL, proving that consumers want bigger screens. A foldable phone would let screen sizes extend beyond 6.5 inches.

Duke Nukem Edition

[goombah99]

They are about to ship a special Duke Nukem Anniversary edition next year.

Apple already shipped this several years ago

[goombah99]

People complained when apple shipped a bendable phone.

Keyboard?

[myid]

Good. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

Hopefully we can connect a thin, foldable keyboard to it.

a tablet that you can put in your pocket

[rossdee]

I already have a Kindle Fire 7"

Its a tablet that you can put in your pocket
And a lot cheaper

Re:

[J. T. MacLeod]

That's quite a pocket you have.

Re:a tablet that you can put in your pocket

[nospam007]

"That's quite a pocket you have."

Naw, he's just happy to see you.

Re:

[Daralantan]

Keeping JNCO jeans alive and well.

Want

[mentil]

Now if only they can avoid filling it with bloatware, and not charge >$500 for it, I might consider it to replace my phone AND tablet. If you think of it as being usable as a phone and a tablet, then it makes sense.

Re:

[jools33]

If Samsung could just go with the base android experience, and tone down their colour schem (a lot) then I might be tempted.

Re:

[goombah99]

Apple already made a bendable phone.

It may be a niche market

[Tough Love]

it may be a niche market, but definitely, it will expand

I see what they did there

Battery life?

[wyoung76]

Traditionally, larger screens come with higher power requirements. What's the battery life going to be with this type of arrangement?

Re: Battery life?

[Qbertino]

The Xiaomi Mi Max 3 is a phablet with a 6.9" display and a 5500 milliamp battery. It's basically a large pocket-touch-screen with a battery attached. Reports say it runs for 2.5 days without charge. You can watch an entire season of GoT on it and still have time to surf and phonecall. ... So if the phablet designers did their work, battery time isn't a problem on these devices.

Re:

[Misagon]

With LCD screens it is less about the physical size and more about the number of pixels that matter, for power consumption.

Many "flagship" smartphones have 500+ PPI, which I think is in excess of what the human eye is capable of, and seems to be more about bragging rights than anything else.
I think that if they keep it at a more reasonable 300 PPI or so, which is more than most of Samsung's current tablets (Note excluded), your eyes will not be able to notice the difference and the power consumption should

Do we have working and visible prototypes?

[hcs_$reboot]

or is it just to get Apple worried and working on the wrong path?

There's hope

[AndyKron]

Hopefully it will allow our corporate masters to track us more quickly and efficiently.

Damn

[mobby_6kl]

And I just ordered a Note9 yesterday.

I used to laugh at the huge phones too at first but after first using a OnePlus One, which was pretty big at 5.5" at the time, I'm fully converted. Unless you really just use it to make phone calls (who does that nowadays) a larger screen is way more comfortable for emailing, chatting and browsing since you see more than a paragraph at a time. Also useful for watching youtube^H conference calls etc.

Still, the physical dimensions are a downside, and if there was any way t

Entire not the small phone I am waiting for

[ffkom]

I despise the over-sized and over-weight phones sold today, and would have loved a foldable phone that is really small while folded, and maybe 4" or 5" of display when unfolded.
No such product in sight, still.

Re:

[wwphx]

Ditto. Me, I want an iPhone 5-size smartphone. I do not want bigger, trends like this could end up pushing me back to a flip phone and an iPod Touch, which would save me a huge amount of money on my cell bill.

Tired of Marketing People Designing Computers

[BrendaEM]

Curved and folding screens aren't going solve anything. They are just going to make phones and tablets more fragile so people break them and have to buy more.

I hate the aspect ratio on my Galaxy Note 8 (replacement phone). If you look closely, at the curved edges, you can see a blue line at each side. What an achievement. : P

Morons!

WHY?

[ChodaBoyUSA]

Why should "reviewers" be allowed to exert ANY control over consumer devices? The "tech reviewers" are why we have all glass fragile sealed devices without replaceable batteries. "to see how reviewers and the market react" Personally, I am beyond tired of anything "reviewers" say about anything.