Samsung foldable smartphone with Inifinity Flex display: How it works

Samsung’s foldable smartphone can unfold like a book
from a smartphone into a tablet.
YouTube/Samsung

• Samsung
  unveiled the first look of its foldable smartphone using its
  new foldable display technology called “Infinity Flex.”
• The device is running on a special version of Android
  developed in partnership with Google designed around foldable
  display designs. 
• Mass production is expected in the “coming months,” but it
  wasn’t clear if a phone or the display itself will be mass
  produced. 
• Few other details were announced.

Samsung
finally revealed the first official details about its
long-rumored foldable
smartphone on Wednesday.

The phone, which is currently nameless, is essentially a
clamshell device. There is a regular display on the front
for standard smartphone use when the device is closed.

The magic happens when you open — or unfold — the device. The
interior opens like a book to provide one seamless 7.3 inch
screen, transforming the phone into a tablet. 

Before Samsung showed off the device at the event, it kept the
phone in a square case to conceal its design.

Samsung senior vice president Justin Denison said “Trust me,
there’s a device inside here [the case] and it is stunning.”

The foldable display itself is called “Infinity Flex.” To create
its Infinity Flex display, Samsung said it needed to invent and
use new materials to make a display that can fold an unfold
“hundreds of thousands of times” without breaking or becoming
damaged.

Samsung also worked with Google to create a special version of
Android designed around a foldable display design. One of the
highlighted features announced at Samsung’s event was “App
Continuity” that allows you to use an app when the phone is
folded, and continue using it when you unfold the phone in tablet
format. The app would also enlarge itself to fill the
tablet-format display.  

The phone folded into a normal smartphone
format.
YouTube/Samsung

Samsung also mentioned its “Multi-active Window” feature that
would let you have up to three open and usable apps on the
unfolded tablet display. 

YouTube/Samsung

Little else about the device was shared by Samsung, apart from
confirmation that the company will begin mass production in the
“coming months.” Denison didn’t make it clear whether a phone
with the Infinity Flex display will begin mass production in the
coming months, or if only the display itself will soon be mass
produced.  There’s still no word on pricing, design, specs,
or final availability.