Next year may be all about foldable phones. No, it may not even be about under-display fingerprint scanners as South Korean and Chinese OEMs are set to battle in this new category. Samsung has long been anticipated to launch its own foldable phone and we believe it will be the Galaxy X which is scheduled to launch in January, ahead of the Galaxy S10. The past couple of years, we’ve been hearing different information about the upcoming Samsung foldable phone but nothing concrete yet.
Smartphone innovation needs to level up and having real foldable screens may be the next big thing. It will be interesting next year because we know each company will implement the concept differently.
We know about several companies apart from Samsung also planning on foldable devices. There’s Huawei planning its own foldable phone. The LG foldable phone is now in the works and patent application has recently surfaced. Lenovo-Motorola is also working on one. ZTE went ahead with the Axon M dual-screen phone. We know OPPO also filed a patent for a foldable smartphone.
Implementation of the foldable part of a phone will be different for each company. Huawei and Samsung will do in-fold while Xiaomi may decide on out-fold. OPPO also has plans. The two will work with Chinese panel makers such as BOE and Vision Oaks. With the impending production of foldable phones, we believe there may be a conflict between Korea and China in this area. Huawei is said to buy foldable panels from BOE. OPPO and Xiaomi are getting theirs from Chinese suppliers. We believe Samsung is working on its own.
It’s been taking Samsung a while to finalize the foldable device but we know it will be ready soon. As for the Chinese companies mentioned, we won’t be surprised if they announce something ahead of the South Korean tech giant. Chinese OEMs have this way of always being first to introduce new products and technologies.
VIA: ETNews
