Galaxy Fold unveiled at Samsung’s Unpacked event

Feb 21, 2019 08:18 GMT  ·  By

Samsung Galaxy Fold is finally here as the company’s first foldable phone, and because the South Korean firm wants to make sure everything is running smoothly on the increased screen estate, it worked with a series of partners to optimize their apps.

Both Google and Microsoft collaborated with Samsung on making their apps take full advantage of the 7.3-inch display when used in tablet mode, so YouTube and Office would run just fine on the device.

Samsung confirmed during its press event that Microsoft Office was specifically optimized for the Galaxy Fold, though the actual experience with the productivity suite on the new model is something that still remains to be discovered later this year when the device launches.

Microsoft bloatware

Like the other Samsung models, the Galaxy Fold also comes with a series of pre-installed Microsoft apps, including here not only the aforementioned Office productivity suite, but also OneDrive and LinkedIn. These are apps that were previously offered on the older Galaxy S models, and it looks like the collaboration between Samsung and Microsoft continues on this new product category.

There will also be other bloatware apps on the Galaxy Fold, including Facebook, which will also come pre-installed. Netflix and Spotify have also been spotted installed on the foldable phone during Samsung’s press event, but it remains to be seen if Samsung just put there for the live demo or they would also be offered pre-installed on the device.

It remains to be seen how much of this bloatware will be removable on the Galaxy Fold, but even if some apps can’t be uninstalled, there are always third-party apps to help you with this.

The Galaxy Fold will cost $1,980 and will go on sale on April 26, so we’ll find out more in just a couple of months when it finally hits the shelves.