The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are great phones, but they’re also pretty boring. They look exactly like last year’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, and they don’t really offer any innovative new features at all. Instead, they feature a modest step forward in terms of specs, and a new camera. That’s probably why sales have reportedly been quite bad so far, a notion that’s definitely backed up by the fact that the phones’ prices were slashed at three out of four major US wireless carriers within a month of release.
If everything we’ve seen and heard so far pans out, we can expect more of the same from the Galaxy Note 9 Samsung is set to unveil in early August. It’ll likely feature a nearly identical design compared to last year’s Galaxy Note 8, and it’ll pack the same specs as the Galaxy S9 and S9+. Lucky for Samsung fans, the company is cooking up several exciting new smartphones it plans to release next year, though a new report brings some potentially terrible news about Samsung’s most exciting and mysterious new smartphone of 2019.
As most savvy Samsung fans will have undoubtedly heard by now, Samsung is working on its first smartphone with a large, foldable display. Currently referred to as the “Galaxy X,” the handset is expected to feature either one large foldable OLED display, or two OLED screens that fold face to face with almost no bezel in between them when open. Samsung initially wanted to release its foldable Galaxy X phone in 2018, but it decided to push back the phone’s launch in order to further refine the device’s design.
Now, The Korea Times reports that Samsung will be the first smartphone maker in the world to launch a phone with a foldable screen. That’s the good news. There is some bad news that comes along with it, however: The Galaxy X might end up being insanely expensive.
According to Kim Jang-yeol, head of research at Golden Bridge Investment, the phone could cost as much as 2 million won when it’s released. That’s just under $1,850 at today’s exchange rate.
The good news is the handset is still on track to launch next year. “Parts affiliates and first-tier subcontractors will begin supplying parts to Samsung Electronics’ handset division beginning in November, at the earliest, with the company assembling the phone aiming for a launch next year,” Park Hyung-woo, an analyst at South Korean bank Shinhan Financial, told The Korea Times. He believes the Galaxy X will feature two inner display panels and a third panel on the outside of the phone for use when the device is folded.
“This new device is an interesting thing as it will have two inside panels and one outside panel with the two inside panels forming the 7.3-inch screen when the phone is unfolded,” Park noted. He said the Galaxy X will be shown off in private to Samsung’s partners during the CES 2019 trade show, but it remains unclear when the general public will get its first glimpse.
