The Galaxy Fold Is Samsung's New Foldable Smartphone, But Will You Buy It For Rs 1.5 Lakh?

It was back in November last year that Samsung first teased a possible foldable smartphone incoming.

And at last night's Galaxy Unpacked event, it finally debuted the device, called the Samsung Galaxy Fold. Here's everything we know about it so far.

Images courtesy: Samsung

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For one, Samsung is using its new Infinity Flex Display, that allows to phone to fold and transform. In this case, it's a 4.6-inch (12:9) display in phone mode that's narrower than your average screen. But when you unfold it, the external screen fades to black and you're instead using the 7.3-inch QXGA+ (4.2:3) tablet-like display inside.

The device uses a Qualcomm 7nm Snapdragon 855 octa-core processor, alongside 512GB of Universal Flash Storage 3.0 (eUFS) for faster speeds, and 12GB RAM. The company has also had to, because of the fold, build two separate batteries. One fits into each compartment, though they're used in combination by the Android operating system, giving the phone a total of 4380mAh.

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The folding itself is smooth as silk, with a hefty-looking chassis that's connected at the fold by interlocking gears. Of course, these are hidden from view. There's a triple camera system on the right side of the device's rear, that work as the primary camera in both phone and tablet mode. This is comprised of a 16MP ultra-wide lens, a 12MP wide-angle, and a 12MP telephoto lens. The front cover camera meanwhile has a 10MP selfie shooter.

The good thing is, Samsung hasn't just ported the old UI to the new device. With the added screen space available in tablet mode, the OS has been tweaked to allow three apps to run side by side, one in a large window and two in smaller. There's also an app continuity system that keeps everything synced and active when you move between tablet and phone mode.

In addition, Samsung has been working with Google to ensure Android Pie supports the new display configurations, and has even optimised apps like WhatsApp, Microsoft Office, and YouTube for them.

It's also fairly clear that, though you may use the phone mode in transit or while making a call, you're going to spend the rest of your time in tablet mode. Despite needing two hands to use, it just looks so much better. Unfortunately, the whole thing also isn't as thin as you're used to flagships being.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold will hit shelves in the US starting April 26, at a whopping $1,980. That's about Rs 1.4 lakh, but probably closer to Rs 1.5 lakh when the phone comes to India. And though it supports LTE, there'll also be a 5G version (probably more expensive). ANd given that the device is planned for a Europe launch on May 3, we can probably expect it to reach India around that time too.

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The question here though is: will anyone buy it? A lakh and a half for a phone is nothing to scoff at in India, and Apple's latest iPhones have already learned the lesson that a Rs 1 lakh price tag is not desirable. Samsung does on the other hand have a very dedicated fan following in India, and the Galaxy Fold does bring us something never seen before.

Unfortunately for Samsung, it may only sell enough of these here to pique the interest of other people that get to wow over it. But fortunately for everyone else, this has officially opened the floodgates for imitators and spiritual successors to take the leap as well. And hopefully that means we'll see some even better designed, and cheaper, foldable smartphones, in the next couple of years.