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Samsung officially delays Galaxy Fold launch
Those rumors of Samsung delaying the Galaxy Fold have quickly proven true. Samsung has issued a statement to Engadget saying it would "delay the release" of the Fold after reviewers' broken units showed how the device needed "further improvements." Impacts on the top and bottom exposed areas of the hinge appeared to create problems based on early data, the company said, while substances that got into the device also "affected performance." Samsung planned to strengthen the display protection and "enhance the guidance" on care for the display to prevent people from removing the vital top layer of the screen.
Galaxy Fold review: A lot of money for a prototype
Click. Smack. Click. Smack. Click. Smack. I feel bad for the people in my life, because everywhere I've been for the past week, the sounds of opening and closing Samsung's Galaxy Fold have followed. Even if you're not prone to fidgeting, this $1,980 smartphone will do that to you. It might not be the first commercially available foldable device, but it is the first one from a company with the global influence to make foldable phones a reality for everyone. And it's a lot of fun to open and close endlessly. Click. Smack. Click. Smack. The Galaxy Fold is far more than just a party trick though: It contains multitudes. The Fold represents a new way of thinking about what modern phones should be able to do. It's an impressive technical achievement. Perhaps more than anything, though, it's a fragile, uneven first step down a path toward a new kind of personal computing. That's a mild way of saying that the Fold is profoundly cool but that almost no one should actually consider buying one. If you do, you're basically agreeing to be Samsung's guinea pig as it tries to figure out how to make this new kind of device truly valuable. At this point, the Galaxy Fold is a glorified bit of beta hardware. But even with all of its compromises, it offers a glimpse of a future that -- for me, anyway -- can't come soon enough.
Samsung has postponed Galaxy Fold launch events in China
The $2,000 Galaxy Fold is already off to a bumpy start no thanks to some broken review units (ours is fine, by the way), and though the April 26th launch in the US remains unaffected, folks on the other side of the world aren't as lucky. Over the weekend, Samsung announced that it has postponed the press events in Hong Kong and Shanghai, which were originally scheduled for April 23rd and 24th i.e. this coming Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
Motorola confirms its foldable phone is coming
By now, it's not much of a secret that Motorola is working on a folding phone of its own: A patent for such a device surfaced late last year, and a subsequent report in The Wall Street Journal basically confirmed the company's plans. Despite the ensuing hype, Motorola has mostly kept quiet about its progress, but in an interview with Engadget this week, Motorola VP of Global Product Dan Dery shed some additional light on the company's ambitions.
The LG V50's Dual Screen is a half-step towards a foldable phone
Despite foldable phones being all the rage at MWC, one of the bigger companies at the show didn't have one. LG has been clear that it won't introduce a foldable phone anytime soon, choosing instead to focus on its 5G flagship, the V50 ThinQ. And it's for good reason. As the company's head of mobile Brian Kwon told The Korea Times earlier this month, LG's more pressing concern "is to regain its market position. Considering this situation, it is too early for LG to launch a foldable smartphone." So instead of trotting out a foldable model for the hordes in Barcelona to swoon over, it showed off a second-display case for the V50 ThinQ. Or as LG calls it, the Dual Screen.
Watch Huawei's MWC event in 12 minutes
MWC 2019 isn't all about foldable phones and 5G. Eh, who am I kidding... it is pretty much all about foldable phones and 5G. Lucky for us, Huawei combines both with the Huawei Mate X, and peppered in some laptop news with the Matebook X Pro. If you missed any of the news from yesterday's event, including the official reveal of that folding model, we've condensed it all down to a 12-minute clip so you don't have to relive every second of the hour-long presentation in order to catch up. And when you're done watching, take a gander at our reaction to the Mate X and the challenges Huawei faces with it's foldable device. Spoiler alert: it ain't cheap.
Huawei’s billboard may have just leaked its foldable phone
Huawei's big reveal at next week's Mobile World Congress may have been scooped by a billboard. An advertisement on display at the event, spotted by Twitter user @gimme2pm, shows a yet-to-be-announced folding smartphone called the Huawei Mate X. Engadget has reached out to Huawei to confirm the advertisement is from Huawei and the product in it is real. We will update this story if we hear back.
Samsung's foldable phone is officially the 'Galaxy Fold'
To the surprise of absolutely no one who paid attention to Samsung's hype-building for Unpacked, it had more to reveal about its foldable phone. The device is now officially known as the Galaxy Fold, and much like the prototype we saw back in November, we're looking at a 4.6-inch secondary AMOLED display on the outside, followed by a much larger 7.3-inch Infinity Flex AMOLED screen when the device is unfolded.
LG won't release a foldable smartphone anytime soon
As Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola rush to release their foldable smartphones, one notable company is sitting out the trend. LG says it's scrapping plans to release a bendy handset, reports The Korea Times, and will instead launch a 5G version of its flagship V-series brand, along with an LTE G-series lineup, at MWC later this month. The announcement comes just weeks after the company posted its fifteenth straight quarter of mobile losses.
TCL's folding phone projects include a watch-like bracelet
Multiple companies have ideas as to how they'll develop folding smartphones. TCL, however, isn't content to settle on one -- it's seemingly tackling them all. CNET has obtained images and patent filings that show TCL exploring five foldable designs. Four of them are ultimately variants on a theme (folding horizontally or vertically, inward or outward), but a fifth model would turn into a smartwatch-style bracelet. Effectively, it'd resurrect Lenovo's Cplus concept as a practical product.
What to expect from Samsung’s Galaxy S10 event
We're mere days away from Samsung's next Unpacked event, so the Korean conglomerate is all but ready to dish the details on the Galaxy S10 smartphone family. Not that we're totally in the dark, of course. As is the case in the lead-up to all flagship smartphone launches, the rumor mill has been picking up pace over the past weeks and months, giving us more than a few hints on what to expect on February 20th. The new Galaxy S10 range will obviously be the headline act, but Samsung's foldable phone is certain to make an appearance, and perhaps there'll be a few surprises that've thus far avoided the leak treatment, too.
Samsung really wants you to know its folding phone is coming
Many of us with more than a passing knowledge of phones know Samsung is all but certain to reveal more about its foldable handset next week. Until then, it knows it has something significant to show off, and it's trying to build hype for its Unpacked event. It's like a relative who got you a cool gift for your birthday, and can't stop excitedly babbling without actually telling you what it is (even if it is a "gift" that could cost you over $1,700).
