Samsung Engineers have been burning the midnight oil in trying to create a smartphone with a foldable display – the type that you can possibly roll up like a dollar bill. The project apparently carries the codename – Project Valley (or V) and will reportedly, come with dual screens. Samsung has already secured numerous patents for such a device, and while we’ve seen some very early prototypes of such foldable panels, smartphones which will actually incorporate those displays, have thus far seemed like a distant idea. However, according to industry sources, we might finally be close to seeing a working device with a folding display in real life from the Korean company. The top-secret project is reported to be still in an experimental stage, and there’s no guarantee that Samsung would even find it technically and financially feasible to bring the device to the market at an acceptable price, even if the company can manage to create a working prototype of what promises to be a revolutionary device. Whichever way the cookie crumbles, it would still be a long way before the product can hit primetime, let alone manufactured on a commercial scale. However, if these rumors are anywhere close to being true, Samsung might just be on the verge of being the first company to make the world’s first smartphone with a foldable display.
The fact that Samsung’s mobile devices division is not afraid to experiment with seemingly out-there form factors, is well established. When it released the original Galaxy Note in 2011 with a 5.3 inch screen, it was derided on many a forum on the internet as a giant piece of toast, but Samsung’s perseverance eventually created an entirely new category – the phablet. The company also launched the Galaxy Note Edge last year alongside the fourth generation of its Note flagship, with the new device – the Note Edge – having a unique curved edge on one side. The device, although described variously as weird and wacky, managed to outperform even Samsung’s own estimates and the company had to ramp up productions to meet demand. Since then, its Galaxy S6 Edge released earlier this year, has also sold by the truckloads, far outstripping Samsung’s own estimates yet again.