Rumor: Samsung will release foldable smartphone this summer

Samsung plans to release a smartphone that folds into a tablet this summer. That reports a South Korean site. The smartphone with a folding display has been in development for years. Samsung has been releasing devices with curved screens for a few years now.

Development of the fold-out model began in August last year, The Investor reports. Before that, Samsung worked under the code name Project Valley on a device that is folded inwards by default. However, this could cause irritation among consumers, because they also have to open the device when using the device as a telephone. That would not be the case with the current prototype. The phone would be foldable into a 7 “tablet. How that works exactly is unknown.

Samsung would postpone the decision on the release of the phone, because it doubts the commercial feasibility of a release. In any case, it would be a relatively small number. Samsung would like to make 100,000 in the summer. Earlier rumors indicated that the device would be called Galaxy X.

The South Korean manufacturer has been working on bendable OLED screens for years. It released the Galaxy Note edge in 2014, followed by the S6 edge and S7 edge in the years after. They have bendable screens, but users cannot bend the displays themselves: they come bent from the factory.

According to The Investor, LG is also working on foldable devices. The first of these should also be released in 2017. The two South Korean fighters are often working on similar initiatives at the same time. For example, they released the first smartphones with a curved screen at almost the same time in the fall of 2013.

Old prototype of a curved Samsung screen