Rumor: Samsung’s smartphone with foldable display coming early 2017

Samsung will probably announce its smartphone with a foldable display early next year, Bloomberg news agency reports. The smartphone can be unfolded just like an old flip phone and thus show a much larger display, so that the device can be used as a tablet.

When folded, it is a phone with a 5″ screen, unfolded it is a tablet with an 8″ screen, Bloomberg said, citing anonymous sources. The financial news agency reports a second telephone with a bendable screen, but does not say which one it would be. The phones are outside the Galaxy S series of smartphones, according to the news agency.

According to a recent patent application, the foldable device works through a bendable element in the middle of the device, which allows the phone to be folded in half. According to Bloomberg, the phones are known under the name Project Valley, a code name that has been doing the rounds for some time, and should be ready for a presentation for or at the telecom fair Mobile World Congress. Samsung has been using that fair for several years to announce its Galaxy S. That happened with the Galaxy S5 in 2014, Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge in 2015, and this year with the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

Samsung has been working on bendable OLED screens for years. The most visible result of this is the curved screens in the edge versions of current devices. Samsung has been showing the technology behind this at trade shows and events since about 2008, but the problems lie in making entire smartphones suitable as bendable devices, including components such as PCBs and batteries.