Samsung teased a brand-new phone today called the Galaxy Fold. It is called the Fold because it folds, in half, hot-dog style, and unfolds again. To get your hands on this folding device means shelling out $1,980 (£1,515) —at least.
In a press release Wednesday, Samsung ran through the specs for the Galaxy Fold The main display had a Dynamic AMOLED Infinity Flex screen that stretches 7.3 inches (i.e. the size of the screen when the phone is unfolded), while the folded cover display is Super AMOLED at 4.6 inches. There are three cameras—one on the front called the Selfie camera, one on the inside, and one on the back—with six lenses in total. The Galaxy Fold features 12GB or 512GB of memory, as well as "fast" wired or wireless charging. It comes in four colours: space silver, cosmos black, martian green, and astro blue.
Why buy a Galaxy Fold? Samsung will tell you that it is the perfect device of multitaskers, capable of running three apps simultaneously, streaming content or viewing work on a large screen, completing one-handed tasks in folded mode, and more. "Surf, text, work, watch, and share without losing a beat," the company urges. Combine your smartphone tasks with your tablet tasks.
Really, you're buying a Samsung Galaxy Fold because it's the latest, weirdest innovation to come out of the smartphone segment, which has been a bore in the last couple of years. Remember the Apple iPhone X? No one really cared for it. Or if they did, they thought Apple couldn't justify the thousand-dollar price tag. Or, you're buying it because you harbour dreams of walking around town looking like Belle with a book in Beauty and the Beast. This is all assuming you can afford to buy it. No word on whether or not Samsung will provide users with a five-year payment plan.
Everyone will have to wait a few months for reviewers to get their hands on the Samsung Galaxy Fold to test out how efficient and/or stylish and/or useful and/or sophisticated it is, or isn't. In the meantime, stay tuned for what we predict will be the next big smartphone industry announcement: an Apple Origami device that tells fortunes and carries a £2,500 price tag. (Charger sold separately.)
Sarah Rense is the Lifestyle Editor at Esquire, where she covers tech, food, drinks, home, and more.
