This is it, the final stretch. Over the past two years, Samsung has been showing off its foldable display technology in private meetings, even publicly teasing its very first device with the technology during its Developer Conference late last year. After a decade of seeing an array of tech demos and prototypes of foldable displays at various trade shows, you’ll finally have the ability to own a consumer device of your own come April 26.
Now, you’ve probably heard, the Galaxy Fold isn’t cheap. In fact, it’s almost twice as much as some of the base level flagship phones that are currently on sale. Samsung opened reservations for the phone on April 12, and a day later, in the early hours of the morning, closed it. It’s uncertain why reservations were closed, but at around 3PM PT on April 12, the virtual queue for reservations indicated that 7,125 people had reserved the T-Mobile version, and another 7,460 the AT&T model in the United States.
The numbers above don’t translate to actual sales and currently just show how many might buy the phone. Again, this thing is $1,980, so there could be many that could have a last-minute change of heart. As you might expect, the reception does seem a bit lukewarm when compared to the company’s more popular Galaxy S line, which had stellar pre-order numbers this year.
But you kind of expect a first generation device to cost this much. Like all things new, many have questions, in particular with the display found on the Galaxy Fold – particularly its durability. Samsung doesn’t have an answer for this concern, but has attempted to calm people’s fears by showing off that its specially designed hinge can withstand 200,000 folds or around five years of use.
With reservations now closed, those that are interested will have to hope that Samsung at some point reopens the queue or there are plenty available at physical locations when it goes on sale. Luckily, this is just the beginning, and if you aren’t parting with your hard earned money this go-around, there should be plenty of different options coming up from Samsung and other manufacturers in the next year or two.
