Is this Samsung’s next Galaxy Fold?

0 0 December 20, 2019 Edit this post

By Sean Hollister, The Verge

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold has the dubious honor of being the first folding phone most of our readers could actually buy — but it won’t be the last. Last month, Motorola announced a vertically folding throwback to its classic RAZR, and Samsung has teased that it might do something very similar. Now, images are floating around Chinese social media of a phone that looks like it might be Samsung’s clamshell Galaxy Fold — and you can check them out for yourself immediately above and below.

We aren’t certain that these images, via Weibo by way of phone leaker Ice Universe, actually depict a Samsung device, much less one that’s headed to market. It could be a prototype, a concept, or even a clever fake. But Bloomberg has reported since March that Samsung would follow the Galaxy Fold with a pair of additional foldable devices including a clamshell like the one you see above, and the overall silhouette lines up nicely with the concept images that Samsung officially shared in October.

We’re only seeing two rear cameras in these pics

You might note, though, that this foldable appears to only have two primary cameras around back, compared to the five or so reportedly headed to Samsung’s Galaxy S11 in February of next year. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that the next Galaxy Fold would launch around the same time, and would also get the same 108-megapixel main camera and 5x zoom camera as the Galaxy S11 — but if so, and if these images are that phone, it looks like it might rely on digital zoom for everything between 1x and 5x.

Earlier this month, after speaking to analysts, The Korea Herald reported that the next Galaxy Fold is expected to be quite a bit more affordable than its predecessor at around $845, less than half the $1,980 the current device costs in the US. We’re taking that with a grain of salt since Motorola’s razr foldable will cost $1,499 this January despite its mid-range specs. Even $900 would be pretty aggressive for a folding Samsung flagship.

Yesterday, Huawei announced that it’ll be releasing a faster, more durable version of its Mate X foldable next year, and will bring the existing version to Europe as well. It’s only been released in China so far.