As of tomorrow, consumers willing to take Samsung up on its offer to show them the future of smartphone experiences can reserve their very own Galaxy Fold, the company’s seminal Android flagship featuring a bendable screen.
Originally announced in the run-up to this year’s Mobile World Congress, the Galaxy Fold is a unique beast that started a mini-wave of foldable handset announcements which encompassed the likes of Huawei and OPPO.
The early registrations will be accepted via the official Samsung storefront in the United States, the company confirmed. Right now, the Galaxy Fold page (linked above) still only offers a generic newsletter sign-up but should be updated with a reservation form first thing tomorrow morning PST, or possibly even earlier than that.
In its outfolded state, the Galaxy Fold offers a massive 7.3-inch Super AMOLED display with an unconventional resolution of 2,152 by 1,536 pixels. The handset utilizes Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 855 chip, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of flash memory, a 4,380mAh battery, and a triple-camera setup on par with that of the Galaxy S10+ which is currently among the top five (arguably top two, only behind the P30 Pro) performers on the market.
Only a single Galaxy Fold variant is planned for release and no “affordable” models will be coming. Samsung decided to go all out with the device since its foldable screen will already see it priced outside of most people’s budgets. In other words, tech enthusiasts sparing no expense on bleeding-edge solutions are the only crowd Samsung is interested in pleasing with the Galaxy Fold, which is why it’s not bothering with stripped down models.
While the firm generally doesn’t bother with niche devices (which is e.g. why it has yet to jump on the gaming handset bandwagon), the Galaxy Fold marks an important evolution of the traditional smartphone form factor, so it unsurprisingly wants to be viewed as one of its pioneers.
Galaxy S10 5G still coming soon… sooner… no, not that soon
Besides confirming the start of Galaxy Fold reservations, Samsung today also provided an update on the Galaxy S10 5G, the limited-edition member of its newest Android flagship family which was announced alongside the S10e, S10, and the S10+ in late February but is still missing from the store shelves, both physical and virtual. The stateside branch of the South Korean tech giant is now saying the device will become available for purchase in May, whereas its pre-orders will open “soon.”
The firm made no attempt to clarify what “soon” actually entails since the Galaxy S10 5G has technically been “coming soon” for six weeks now. Previous reports and insider claims also suggest the handset will be anything but cheap.
Besides the ability to communicate with the fifth generation of wireless networks, the Galaxy S10 5G will also sport unique time-of-flight sensors on both the front and back. Unlike traditional imaging modules, these cameras have been specifically designed for accurate depth mapping and can track objects in a highly reliable manner. Apple has been using similar technologies since late 2017 and the iPhone X, with Huawei, Xiaomi, and — as of recently — LG also embracing them in recent times.
Samsung Galaxy Fold - Samsung.com