The year of 2019 is the year when foldable smartphones actually became a reality. Samsung and Huawei were developing foldable smartphones since the past couple of year and both the companies launched their first foldable smartphone.
However, the devices are a bit on the pricier side. The Samsung Galaxy Fold is expected to be priced around $1,980 while the Huawei Mate X is expected to start at around 2,299 Euros. While Galaxy Fold is scheduled to go on sale later this month, the Mate X will be available for purchase from June.
Because of the pricing, the device isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But according to Zhang Yu, Senior Vice President of BOE, a China-based display panel manufacturer, the pricing of the foldable smartphones could drop to around $1,500 by the year 2021.
The Galaxy Fold has two displays – a 4.6-inch 840 x 1960 screen on the outside and a 7.3-inch 1536 x 2152 flexible display on the inside when unfolded. It is powered by a Snapdragon 855 processor with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.
There are two cameras above the flexible display – a 10MP f/2.2 sensor and an 8MP f/1.9 sensor both for selfies. The triple rear cameras are a 12MP telephoto camera with OIS and an f/2.4 aperture paired with a 12MP wide-angle camera with a variable aperture (f/1.5 and f/2.4) which also has OIS. The third sensor is a 16MP ultra-wide angle camera with an f/2.2 aperture.
There is also a 10MP f/2.2 selfie camera above the smaller display when it is folded. The Galaxy Fold packs a 4380mAh battery with support for fast charging. It has a USB type-C port at the bottom, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner but no audio jack.
The Huawei Mate X features a large 8-inch screen with a 2480 x 2200 pixels screen resolution and an 8:7.1 aspect ratio when unfolded with pretty thin bezels. When folded, it transforms into a dual display phone – one side is a 6.6-inch (2480 x 1148 pixels) 19.5:9 display while the other is a 6.38-inch (2480 x 892 pixels) 25:9 display.
The phone is powered by the company’s own Kirin 980 chipset, paired with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It comes with the 7nm Balong 5000 modem which brings 5G support to the device. It features three cameras on the back, which also double as the selfie cameras.
The cameras were co-developed with Leica and are made up of a 40MP wide-angle lens, a 16MP ultra-wide angle lens, and an 8MP telephoto lens. The phone runs the EMUI 9.1.1 custom interface, which is based on Android 9 Pie operating system out-of-the-box and is powered by a 4,500mAh battery.
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Other smartphone manufacturers, including Xiaomi, Lenovo, LG, and Motorola, among others are working on launching their own foldable smartphones soon. It will be interesting to see how they price their device.
