Samsung Galaxy Fold officially announced

The Samsung Galaxy Fold was officially unveiled today during the Samsung's Unpacked event today as the company's first smartphone with a foldable display. Customers will be able to use the Galaxy Fold in a traditional smartphone form factor and open it up to reveal the larger folded display.

Design

In its traditional form, the Galaxy Fold features a 4.6-inch display on with an 840 x 1950 pixel resolution and 21:9 aspect ratio. This makes it rather compact and easy to use with a single hand. But you would notice it is slightly thicker than modern smartphones.

When you need more real-estate you can open the phone like a book to reveal its larger 7.3-inch display, which has a 1536 x 2152 pixel resolution and 4.2:3 aspect ratio. Samsung achieved this by developing a new polymer, which allows the inner display to be 50% thinner than any other screen out there. The usual front and rear of the phone are held together by the display and a powerful hinge.

Samsung claims that this hinge has been specially designed to withstand thousands of folds and unfolds and is made of multiple gears, which Samsung promises will close with a satisfying click.

A fingerprint scanner can be found on the right frame on the device.

The Galaxy Fold will launch in four different colors — Space Silver, Cosmos Black, Martian Green, and Astro Blue. Samsung is even giving customers the option to customize the Galaxy Fold in a combination of pre-set color and side accents to your liking.

Hardware

The Samsung Galaxy Fold is powered by Qualcomm's 7nm Snapdragon 855 chipset. There is 512GB of internal storage for your media and 12GB of RAM ensuring that this device will breeze through the most intense tasks.

The handset has been outfitted with two separate batteries on either side of the clamshell design. These batteries give the device a total capacity is 4,380 mAh. The Galaxy Fold is also capable of giving off charge via wireless PowerShare, which lets you place another device on top of it when you are charging it for quick dual charging action.

Camera

Samsung has outfitted the Galaxy Fold with a total of six cameras. On its rear, you have a triple camera setup, made up of a standard 12 MP camera with a variable aperture (F1.5 - F2.4), a 12 MP telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom and an F2.4 aperture, and a 16 MP ultra-wide-angle camera.

On the front of the device (in its closed form) you have a 10 MP selfie camera with an F2.2 aperture.

When you open the device you have another dual camera setup, which combines a 10MP, F2.2 sensor with an 8MP depth camera for portrait selfies.

Software

The Samsung Galaxy Fold will feature Samsung's One UI running on top of Android 9.0 Pie.

Samsung has customized One UI specifically for the Galaxy Fold with features like app continuity, which will allow apps to pick up on one display where you left off on the other. For example, when you want to browse Google Maps on a larger display, simply open up the Galaxy Fold and the app will seamlessly transition to the 7.3-inch display.

Samsung also allows for a total of three apps to be opened on the larger display. A main app on the left side and up to two apps in small windows on the right side.

Release and Availability

The Samsung Galaxy Fold will be available for purchase on April 26th and will cost you $1920.

Customers in the US will be able to purchase the handset on AT&T and T-Mobile. It's currently unknown if Samsung will offer the Galaxy Fold on CDMA networks like Verizon or Sprint.