14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung’s foldable Galaxy X smartphone has been in the news for quite some time now, with the most recent reports saying that the South Korean company could start production of prototypes as early as Q3 this year and the device could be launched next year.
However, analysts and researchers are skeptical about this timeline, and they don’t believe Samsung is close to achieving the technology, as illustrated in a report by The Investor. Display experts and insiders from Samsung believe the launch of Galaxy X will be a risky one and the company doesn’t wish to take any chances, especially after the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco last year.
The head of Samsung Electronics, Koh Dong-jin, said last year that Samsung was aiming to bring meaningful innovations and true convenience to its users through a foldable smartphone and more time was needed to develop the product.
Samsung Display conducted a series of projects for rollable and foldable displays since 2005, and the company managed to succeed in folding a functional display in 2008. But things are a bit more complicated when it comes to smartphones.
Galaxy X must be durable and thin
More than a decade since it began working on foldable products, Samsung has yet to produce a functional foldable smartphone, as the company must still overcome a number of technical difficulties.
One of the issues would be durability, as materials that make phones last longer are thicker, which would reduce the device’s flexibility. In addition, the device would also have to withstand thousands of bending actions, which means that it has to be durable.
The Galaxy X would also have to be thin, with an optimal thickness of just 10 millimeters when folded, so it wouldn’t surpass the thinness of other phones on the market. This would mean that the rolling radius would have to be 3 millimeters or less, which only leaves 4 millimeters of room for adding the battery, circuit board, cameras and sensors. Reports have said that Samsung wishes to make the Galaxy X a luxurious ultra premium phone, and device thinness is important in order to achieve that.