That Samsung is set to reveal a foldable phone next month is not so much a surprise anymore; the company showed off the technology at its recent developer conference and the time for an actual product announcement is fast approaching. It’s widely expected the Samsung foldable phone will be unveiled next month on February 20, at an event held just ahead of MWC 2019.
Overnight, reports have emerged apparently confirming the launch of the foldable phone next month, but they confirm another somewhat less pleasant detail.
Phone Arena reports that a senior Samsung official’s comments that “the folder phone will be released at twice the price of a premium phone, so a strong user case is needed.” That for Samsung seems to be the unique form factor that brings abilities like running three different apps at once, or unfurling in a tablet-sized media consumption machine when you need it for watching videos or browsing.
What’s that “twice the price” look like? Previous rumours have floated around the $1500 to $2000 mark. Before you say “that’s not so bad”, let’s remember that these are US Dollar figures, so realistically, that starting price is looking closer to $2100.
How realistic is this? Well, the new technology with more screen real-estate is likely to be more expensive, so that part fits. That Phone Arena doesn’t cite its sources is concerning; if this “senior Samsung official” gave comments to the Korean press, you’d expect those comments to be reported somewhere. They seemingly aren’t.
We’ll take this with a grain of salt, but reality is, we’re just as excited to see what a real foldable phone looks like as anyone else.
