It's Apple's fault, as you might already suspect. Apple's iPhone X introduced everyone to the concept of a smartphone "notch" as a trade-off for a phone with a nearly wall-to-wall screen. Almost every other smartphone maker has followed suit since, from Google to Samsung. Look no further than Samsung'snew smartphone, the Galaxy S10, for an idea of how Apple's iPhone X design has pushed the entire smartphone industry toward a so-called "all glass" phone interface: Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider Which is why one particularly bizarre design choice stood out so much when, on Wednesday, I first saw Samsung's Galaxy Fold, the $1,980 folding smartphone/tablet that Samsung is also launching this year. That the device folds is obviously remarkable. A folding screen! That's some "Jetsons"-style futuristic magic right there: After that initial novelty wore off, however, something else really stood out: the smartphone's front screen. Given that the device is still primarily a smartphone, it's striking how bizarrely small the screen is at 4.6 inches. Even more striking, perhaps, are the two absolutely massive black bars on the top and bottom of that tiny screen: Are there technical reasons for these large gaps? Almost certainly. Price considerations, given the already high price of the device? Assuredly. The Galaxy Fold is, more or less, an entirely new product category, so we're in uncharted territory here. There could be any number of reasons for the large gaps above and below the smartphone's screen. That said, anyone switching from a standard, modern smartphone to the Galaxy Fold will need to consider the trade-off: losing about a full inch of screen real estate in exchange for a folding phone. We've asked Samsung representatives for a statement on the screen design, but have yet to hear back. Take a look at the debut trailer for the Samsung Galaxy Fold right here: See Also:<doc-sep>When it comes to folding phones, Goldman Sachs thinks "Samsung has at least a two-year lead" over Apple. Though the Samsung Galaxy Fold and the Huawei Mate X are clunky prototypes, they still look great. Apple was four years behind the big-screen "phablet" craze that is now the standard size for phones. If people do want phones that can also be iPads, then Apple is already behind the game. The Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall and his team made a big call last Wednesday favoring Samsung's new folding phone, the Galaxy Fold: He told clients that Apple's iPhone range might be two years behind the curve. A folding phone "may not be doable for Apple," he said. "We see this as challenging for Apple, who could find themselves with no access to the critical flexible OLED technology, for which we believe Samsung has at least a two-year lead over other display competitors." This feels absurd. Is Apple really two years behind the future of phones? History shows that the idea is plausible. Samsung is known for its gimmicks. The Fold costs nearly $2,000 and is launching into a marketplace where almost no one has ever said, "Gee, I wish this was fold-ier." The new Huawei Mate X. REUTERS/Sergio Perez Predictably, pro-Apple bloggers like John Gruber dumped all over the Fold. "I look at the Galaxy Fold and I still see a prototype. It looks terrible when folded — a thick device with a tiny display with huge forehead and chin," he wrote, adding, "It just seems clunky." He later added: "The Galaxy Fold looks like a prototype, not a shipping product. I think flexible, foldable displays have a good future, but this isn't it." This feels like 2010 all over again But now, at the massive Mobile World Congress tech trade show in Barcelona, foldable phones are the only story. The concept is simple: It's a phone roughly the size of an iPhone XS or XR, but it opens up like a book, and then you're looking at a screen twice the size on the inside (the Samsung Galaxy Fold) or the outside (the Huawei Mate X). Suddenly, it feels like 2010 all over again. That year, Samsung began selling large-screen "phablets" — a move then scorned by Apple. Apple's CEO at the time, Steve Jobs, said "You can't get your hand around it" and "No one's going to buy that." By 2013, however, Apple realized Jobs was wrong. Internal documents produced for a lawsuit showed that iPhone sales growth was slowing even though the market as a whole was growing fast. All the growth was among phones with screens bigger than 4 inches; the iPhone was 3.5 inches. The title of one slide in Apple's documents was "Consumers want what we don't have." It wasn't until 2014 that Apple launched its first large-screen phone, the iPhone 6. iPhone sales growth went through a trough when Apple had only small-screen models and Samsung had large ones. BI Intelligence It's obvious why people want larger screens People like larger screens. They want to see their photos at scale. They want to play games and have the full experience. They want to watch movies they can actually see. Folding screens are a giant step up for anyone who wants that. (Imagine reading a book that's actually the size of a book.) And yet they are the same size as a regular phone. The threat to Apple is that Samsung and Huawei have correctly identified that people want big screens in their pockets, and those are already in production. At Apple, they exist only as patented diagrams, as far as we know. What if there is no longer a need to buy a phone and an iPad? There is a second threat. When open, the Fold or the Mate X is the size of a small tablet. Part of the appeal here, surely, is that people will be faced with a choice: Pay twice for a phone and a tablet, or just buy a folding phone and get both at once? Apple reliably sells 10 million iPads per quarter. How much of that might Samsung steal? Gruber is right about one thing: The Fold and the Mate X look like prototypes — really good prototypes, it must be said. These devices will get thinner, their bezels will shrink, their batteries will last longer, their hinges will get less clunky, and they will probably get cheaper. That's when the real challenge for Apple sets in. Samsung already makes phones more beautiful than the iPhone, with specs to match. It can be expected to repeat that with folding devices. It took Apple four years to catch up with Samsung when the latter began setting the pace in large screens. Today, iPhone sales are declining, and there is no hint of a new iPhone format in sight. It will be interesting to see how long Apple waits this time around.<doc-sep>Huawei has become the latest mainstream smartphone producer to reveal a folding smartphone, but the $2,600 Mate X takes a different approach from Samsung's recently-launched Galaxy Fold by putting the screen on the outside of the bend, rather than inside. Revealed at Mobile World Congress, the Huawei Mate X is billed as a 5G-supporting foldable smartphone. Using a "Falcon Wing Mechanical Hinge," the device can switch between a 6.6-inch smartphone with OLED displays on the front and rear to a larger 8-inch tablet. While the Samsung Galaxy Fold elects to put the screen on the inside of the bend, Huawei opted to place it externally, a decision that puts far less strain on the display from repeated bending. Such a move is also risky from a usability standpoint, as it means the screen is not as protected from other items, such as keys in a pocket, unlike the inward screen design. The 2-in-1 device is quite thin by modern smartphone standards, measuring 5.4 millimeters at its slimmest point when unfolded. However, a large "camera bump" section is located on one edge and going the entire width of the device. The device has a trio of cameras in said bump, and they are located only on one side of the device, with no sensors on the screen side when opened like a tablet. Users are able to take self portraits by folding the device and having the camera side face them, with the partial display showing the viewfinder right next to the cameras. Inside the Mate X is a Kirin 980 processor and the 7-nanometer 5G Balong 5000 chipset, claimed to offer up to 4.6Gbps download speeds, and will support both SA and NSA architectures. While few details have been revealed about its internals, it does include a "Fingerbutton Power Button" for waking the device and authenticating the user, as well as a fast charge capability offering to recharge up to 85 percent of the 4,500mAh battery in just 30 minutes. Arriving in June, the Huawei Mate X will start from 2,299 euros ($2,611), which is considerably higher than Samsung's sub-$2,000 device.<doc-sep>
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Samsung unveiled a highly anticipated smartphone with a foldable screen in an attempt to break the innovative funk that has beset the smartphones market. The phone, announced Wednesday in San Francisco, will be called the Galaxy Fold and will sell for $1,980 when it is released April 26. Consumers willing to pay that hefty price will get a device that can unfold like a wallet so it can work like a traditional smartphone with a 4.6 inch screen or morph into something more like a mini-tablet with a 7.3 inch screen. When fully unfolded, the device will be able to simultaneously run three different apps on the screen. “Get ready for the dawn of a new era,” declared DJ Koh, who oversees Samsung’s smartphone division. The new phone, he said, “answers skeptics who said everything has already been done.” Samsung is hoping the Galaxy Fold will spur more people to upgrade their phones and reverse a recent slump that saw its smartphone sales fall 8 percent last year. But some analysts were skeptical. Phones like the Galaxy Fold “are likely sell to a very limited market of technology aficionados who like big screens and have big wallets,” said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. Samsung also released new Galaxy S10 phones that boast fancy cameras, sleek screens covering the entire front of the devices and at least 128 gigabytes of storage — important features to consumers shopping for phones. The new phones are able take wider-angle shots than previous models and can charge other devices, including wireless headphones and smartwatches. A fourth S10 model, due out this spring, will have faster wireless speeds through the emerging 5G cellular network. But those improvements aren’t a big leap from the smartphones released during the past few years by Samsung, Apple and other top manufacturers. With the pace of smartphone innovation seemingly locked in baby steps, consumers are holding on to their existing devices for longer periods than they have in the past. That’s main reason worldwide smartphone sales dropped 4 percent last year, according to the research firm International Data Corp. Consumers’ reluctance to upgrade has been compounded by smartphone sticker shock, which the Galaxy Fold seems unlikely to alleviate. Prices for some existing phones models have soared above $1,000 . Samsung is offering a slightly smaller S10 model for $750 in an attempt to make smartphones more affordable, but the higher-end models sell for $900 and $1,000. All three S10 models will come out March 8, with pre-orders starting Thursday. Samsung trumpeted its 10th anniversary lineup ahead of a major mobile device conference in Barcelona next week. Huawei, which is threatening to overtake Apple as the world’s second biggest seller of smartphones, has promised to use the Spain showcase to preview its own device with a foldable screen and the ability to connect to 5G networks as they become operational during the next few years.