Samsung’s foldable phone isn’t coming very soon, new report claims

A new report from Bloomberg, published Thursday, brings a ton of details about Samsung’s smartphone plans, including some new info about the upcoming Galaxy S10 flagship.

But before we go into that, let’s talk a bit about Samsung’s foldable phone, which has been in development for years and might finally be announced during the Samsung Developer Conference in November.  

According to Bloomberg’s report, Samsung still isn’t sure the foldable phone — codenamed “Winner,” of all things — should fold horizontally or vertically. 

Obviously, this is a third-party report, and there’s no way Samsung will comment on this, so we have no way of knowing to what degree the report is accurate. But if the above tidbit is correct, it means Samsung hasn’t decided on the most basic and fundamental design trait of the foldable phone. 

“Samsung is debating between two prototypes in the final stretch: one longer horizontally and the other vertically when unfolded, while both open from side and side,” the report says, noting that the landscape-oriented model has recently “fallen out of favor” with Samsung’s designers. For this reason, Samsung probably won’t be able to show a physical model of the foldable phone in November; instead, a “conceptual” image will be presented. 

Samsung and Google have been working together on creating a special version of Android that will work well with this phone, though the final UI depends on whether the portrait or landscape variant were ultimately chosen. 

If I were eagerly waiting for a Samsung foldable phone, I’d find all of this worrying, but hey — let’s wait for November and see whether there will be any official news on this device. Bloomberg’s report says Samsung “may not be able” to launch the foldable phone commercially until the second quarter of 2019; if the report is accurate, that date sounds optimistic to me. 

Far less uncertain are Samsung’s plans about the S10, which the report claims will have a 5.8-inch OLED screen curved on both sides — just like all recent Galaxy S phones — nearly no bezel on top and bottom, and round-shaped corners. The phone will also have an under-the-display fingerprint sensor, and three cameras on the rear. The front camera will be “visible and tucked under the screen,” the report says, but it’s unclear whether this means the camera will be behind some sort of notch or a hole in the screen, or simply below it. 

The company also plans to launch a bigger, “Plus” variant of the phone, as well as a cheaper version whose screen won’t have those curvy edges. 

Some worrying news for fans of the headphone jack: Samsung is reportedly “toying” with the idea of an S10 without the 3.5mm audio input connector. Apple and numerous other manufacturers have dropped the headphone jack from their phones, but Samsung has been proud about including the feature in all of its recent flagship.