Samsung presents prototypes for smartphone with foldable screen – Faltphone

Samsung is working on a smartphone with a flexible screen that is reduced to the size of a small tablet. The South Korean company presented a prototype of the device Wednesday at the San Francisco Developers Conference. We do not know exactly when such a phone could arrive on the market. Production of the necessary "Infinity Flexible Screens" is expected to begin in the coming months, said Samsung director Justin Denison. The flexible screen is "the basis of the smartphone of tomorrow".

The flexible display allows you to unfold a diagonal of 7.3 inches, or 18.5 centimeters. Google is also working on software for the new device: the Android operating system will fully support the screen, said Glen Murphy, an employee of the company.

Presentation in the dark

However, many details were literally in the dark during the presentation of the prototype in San Francisco: on the largely darkened scene, one could almost see that the screens did not turn on. So it was difficult to determine the thickness of the folded device, to know if the frame surrounding the conventional screen on the outside was as wide as it looked-and- how Samsung exactly designed the folding mechanism.

After all, it was found that it also had another screen the usual size of the smartphone, located on one of the outer sides, so that it would be usable in the folded state. The group decided to make a first demonstration to involve software developers.

Samsung's concept also includes a new user interface called "One UI" and intelligent voice control. This role is for Samsung Bixby, a digital badistant who challenges Alexa and Apple's Siri. Samsung plans to invest $ 22 billion in the development of artificial intelligence and hire more than a thousand developers in seven artificial intelligence centers. The German version of Bixby should be introduced in a few months, he said in San Francisco. Thus, the "Bixby key" up to now useless in Germany will make sense. In the United States, however, Bixby has so far received only a few positive reviews.

Samsung depends on the support

DJ Koh, head of Samsung's mobile division, spent two days in San Francisco to convince the more than 5,000 software developers and corporate partners who came out of his vision for the future. Because he's facing a problem: unlike Apple, he does not control the operating system of his smartphone. Samsung supports Android and Google support. Samsung's operating system, "Tizen", has never made a breakthrough in the smartphone market. Koh must pull the developers from his side. If you do not customize your applications and applications, the folded phone will remain blank.

According to Koh, Samsung sells 500 million devices each year, from rice cookers to smart speakers, smartphones and TVs. By 2020, all current devices should be networked and get more and more, Bixby. Samsung hopes that this gigantic base will attract enough interest. According to Samsung's market research experts, the number of big smartphones will exceed that of ordinary models by 2021. With the foldable phone, which always fits in all pockets of the suit, Samsung would have an attractive offer.

A collapsible smartphone from Samsung has been speculating for several years. At the same time, smartphones with folding screens are expected by Chinese manufacturers Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo. And LG's South Korean competitor, LG, has already shown the prototype of a big-screen TV that can be rolled up.