Foldable phones have quickly become a very popular topic in the technology community. With quite a few being released this year by large companies such as Huawei and Samsung, many other rumors of other folding phones have begun to spread as well.
These futuristic devices are phones that can operate while “folded” like a phone and “unfolded” like a tablet. The Samsung Galaxy Fold contains a 4.6-inch display and unfolds to a large 7.3-inch display. It contains three small displays within itself, with one being outside the hinge that allows the phone to fold outwards. This large screen area allows users to run up to three apps at one time, and for an app to be able to switch seamlessly between the large and small screens.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold, starting at around $2 thousand, contains many of the newest features and specifications. The high price is contrasted with many of the appealing features such as 5G compatibility, 512 GB of storage and six cameras.
Samsung’s main competitor in the race of foldable phones, Huawei, has also released a model of a folding phone. Known as the Mate X, this phone has a “clamshell” design as dubbed by Forbes. This phone will open outwards and enclose one of the screens. The Mate X opens up to about an 8-inch screen and closes to two screens on either side of the phone. This phone will start at around $2.6 thousand at its launch, which is rumored to be sometime over the summer of 2019.
Similar to the Galaxy Fold, the Mate X will be 5G compatible and have 512 GB worth of storage. The Mate X, however, will have four cameras, while the Galaxy Fold has six.
The phones, despite being the most advanced type of phone on the market, still have their downsides. Consumers have reported that there is a visible crease down the middle of both phones and that it is much more fragile than an older model.
This market continues to grow as companies like Honor, LG and Motorola have patented models for foldable phones to be released in the future. The race for foldable phones is becoming tighter and tighter every day, as more new companies continue to roll out newer models.
