The rumoured foldable smartphone from Samsung, called the Galaxy X, may not be making an appearance till 2019, say reports. In a new report by The Korea Herald, the publication says that Samsung is pushing its plans for a commercial launch of its foldable smartphone. The same publication had earlier said that Samsung was going to produce over 100,000 of these devices in 2017.
Further, it seems bezel-free displays are still doing well, which is one of the reasons for Samsung delaying these smartphones. In addition, the report also says that foldable screens aren’t quite ready for commercial sales at the moment. “Because the bezel-free display currently sells well, we still have enough time to develop foldable display. The technology is expected to be mature around 2019,” Kim Tae-Woong, Principal Display Engineer at Samsung, was quoted as saying.
The foldable smartphone from Samsung has been rumoured for a while now, although the company isn’t the only one exploring this concept. In fact, Lenovo had showcased some of these devices at IFA last year, while LG was amongst the first to show its rollable OLED panels.
On the other hand, the smartphone market is only just getting used to the bezel-free concept, and devices so far have been well appreciated. ZTE, one of the first companies to try its hand at the concept, is selling one such phone in India: the Nubia Z11. Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 and S8+ also come with curved and bezel-free displays. In addition, the Xiaomi Mi Mix (review), launched last year also had a bezel-less design.