Samsung’s new foldable smartphone has been on the cards for some time now. With its official unveiling done back in November last year, the much-anticipated foldable phone was due to be released in March, this year, along with a 5G powered Galaxy S10. However, the official ad video for the foldable Galaxy ‘F’ seems to have been leaked.
Samsung Galaxy F Foldable Phone: Before time
The earliest that anyone was expecting anything to be released regarding the Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. (KRX:005930) foldable smartphone is during the launch of the Galaxy S10 on February 20. At least a teaser regarding the rumoured Galaxy ‘F’ was expected to be released then.
However, the official video for Galaxy F seems to have been leaked on youtube. The account through which the video is posted is of Slashleaks. The video was first discovered by GizmoChina. It seems as if the video was uploaded by mistake before the Unpacked event where the S10 was to be revealed. Hence, the video was deleted soon after. Nonetheless, the video allows us to have a much clearer view of what the South Korean giant’s highly anticipated product looks like.
What does the Samsung Foldable Phone video tell us?
There aren’t any extremely clear shots of the smartphone in the leaked video. The whole video isn’t exactly about promoting a specific smartphone. Instead, it is about promoting Samsung as the brand of the future. At various points in the video, the people can be holding different Samsung devices. However, at one point in time, there’s a woman opening up a foldable Galaxy smartphone. This is the best shot of the required smartphone in the entire video.
A woman can be seen opening up the smartphone as if it was a book! There are no outer coverings, but there seems to be a screen internally. The highly talked about Infinity Flex can also be noticed in the still. Another noticeable thing is the fact that the upper screen ‘cover‘ seems to be thin. On the other hand, the lower part seems to be comparatively thicker. This tells us that all the major components of the smartphone will be in there, with the outer cover serving as a means after opening which the user can access the internal screen. All in all, the smartphone looks really impressive, nothing like we’ve seen before.
Huawei not too far behind
As impressive as the foldable phone looks for Samsung, they are not the only company to be releasing such a device this year. Huawei’s foldable smartphone is expected to release by the mid of this year. They are planning to showcase their version of the product in the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019, a tech trade show to be held next month.
Foldable Phones: The next big thing?
The worldwide foldable display market is estimated to reach 3.1 million units in 2019. The promising future and aggressive moves being made by device manufacturers will the help market to clock 173% CAGR, reaching 63 million units, by 2022. The estimated exploded demand of foldable displays will result in $8.9 billion market by 2022, registering 151% growth.
According to a recent report, the foldable smartphones will account for a mere 1% share of the flexible display market in 2019. The figure is estimated to grow to a significant 12% by 2022.
Samsung has been competing in the premium segment of smartphones for a long time now. With new competitors such as Huawei coming along, they need something like the Foldable smartphone to pip their rivals. Considering the fact that now a few OEM’s are bent upon releasing it, it is finally going to come down to the best version of the product in the market. But since there is no concrete news of a release just yet regarding any one of the products, it is safe to assume that it will be the second half of the year before the real competition regarding these smartphones begins.
