Qualcomm claims the Samsung Galaxy X won’t be launching this year. This is according to a statement made by the company’s Product Manager for Display Technology Salman Saeed who spoke to TechRadar about the phone. Important to note is that it was not mentioned when the phone can be expected to launch, just that it won’t be launching this year, with Saeed adding that it may be more than a few years before a device like the Galaxy X would hit the market.
According to Saeed the longer wait time to see a phone like this launch comes down to the fact that the components which light up individual pixels are not strong enough to withstand frequent bending, which would suggest that releasing a phone that has a flexible display that can bend but made with components that aren’t as susceptible to bending would result in damage to the components, and therein the display itself. That said, the Galaxy X and other future phones that would be like it aren’t going away and the release of such phones is bound to happen at some point. Saeed states that tier one phone manufacturers are already working on these types of devices and the phones are currently being developed in the labs of these companies, but there are issues with parts of the phones being reliable which is causing the setbacks for a launch.
Though the components that light up individual pixels may need to be more flexible before folding phones come to market, Saeed was quick to point out that its chips are more than capable of handling the power requirements that would be in place for a display that can bend over and over. Qualcomm chipsets “have the GPU power” to make things work, so the chipsets aren’t an issue and are “underutilized.” If this is truly the case then once the display issue is worked out, foldable phones will be a fair bit closer to release.