Samsung’s foldable Galaxy X smartphone that’s been heavily rumored about in recent months still isn’t close to being commercialized, numerous industry insiders and sources close to the company told The Investor. The South Korean tech giant is apparently facing a number of technical and production issues that it still needs to resolve before it can hope to commercially release the first generation of its flexible flagship.
Samsung reportedly still hasn’t found the right balance between flexibility and durability of its experimental device as industry experts explain that using extremely hard components to guarantee durability could defeat the purpose of the device as the end result wouldn’t be perfectly flexible. On the other hand, while the current technology allows Samsung to create an easily bendable device, it’s dubious whether such a phone would also be relatively durable compared to its traditional counterparts. The Seoul-based smartphone maker is also currently trying to resolve the issue of decoupling, industry sources say, as some early prototypes of the device allegedly had issues with display panels detaching from the adhesives that were holding them when the device was folded. The display panels themselves need to be able to resist pressure from all angles while the phone itself shouldn’t be thicker than 4mm when unfolded, insiders revealed. All of the issues outlined above are easy to resolve when one has to create a prototype that’s intended to be showcased during a single event, but things aren’t so simple in the context of shipping a commercially viable and fully flexible device that consumers expect will stand the test of time, sources claim.
Samsung reportedly wanted to create thousands of prototypes of flexible smartphones during the first quarter of the year but pushed back that deadline to Q3 2017 in order to deal with all of the technical issues it’s currently facing. According to recent reports, the company is now planning to commercially launch its first foldable smartphone next year. The device in question is expected to be called the Galaxy X seeing how Samsung already applied for a trademark on that name, which isn’t something companies usually do when it comes to code names.