Samsung's Galaxy S10 Event May Have a Game-Changing Foldable Phone Surprise

Samsung announced plans to debut its next-generation Galaxy S10 and S10+ smartphones on February 20 in a Thursday teaser video. But omitted from the video was any mention of its Galaxy F foldable phone, dampening expectations that the most revolutionary of Samsung’s 2019 smartphone launches would be making an appearance so early in the year.

The teaser revealed that three S10 models will launch and go on sale in March, with a 5G variant expected later in the spring. But a new Wall Street Journal report now suggests Samsung also plans to unveil the Galaxy F in what will actually be a pair of simultaneous events, one in San Francisco and one in London.

In other words, by late February we should know the release date for the device, which could be as early as April, its final name and, perhaps, how much it will cost. The report states Samsung is deciding between three names, “Galaxy F”, “Galaxy Fold”, and “Fold.”

The heralded, two-in-one tablet and phone was last teased at Samsung’s developers conference in November of last year. The company’s SVP of mobile production held up a shadowy prototype of the phone on stage, proving that the company’s display can bend without breaking. But he said final silhouette of the phone was still in development.

At the November conference, Google also revealed that it is developing Android software to support foldable phone designs. Samsung said the phone will be capable of running three apps side-by-side using a feature it called, “multi-active widow.”

The Galaxy F’s ambitious smartphone redesign could mark the beginning of a new age of handsets. Royole has already released its own foldable phone and companies like LG, Motorola, Huawei, and even Apple have been said to be working on their own versions. But don’t expect flexible phones to catch on immediately, 2019 will be their test run.

Samsung’s Galaxy F is expected to cost anywhere from $1,900 to $2,500, according to the Yonhap News Agency, and the company is only expected to ship about one million of them. That price tag is as high as a 2018 MacBook Pro; but Samsung, Royole, and the rest will be getting an opportunity to be the first to refine and improve upon what could be an important emerging technology, and the

It’s a new dawn for futuristic flip phones.