Samsung Just Revealed Its Foldable Smartphone Prototype

Samsung today gave the world the first glimpse at its upcoming folding smartphone after weeks of teasing the device and months of market speculation.

Justin Denison, Samsung’s SVP of mobile product marketing, showed off an apparent prototype of the foldable smartphone during the company’s developer conference on Wednesday (via the BBC).

“We’ve been living in a world where the size of your screen can only be as large as the device itself,” Denison said of the unveiling. “We’ve added a new dimension to help you browse, watch and multitask like never before.”

But almost nothing was revealed about the device except for its foldable screen.

Essentially, the device is a square-shaped tablet with a 7.3-inch display that can fold in half to reveal a secondary back display.

When folded, the rear display becomes the primary display — and allows the device to fit into a pocket.

While Samsung didn’t reveal the name of the device, it did name the folding display technology that would power it: Infinity Flex Display.

“We’ve been living in a world where the size of your screen can only be as large as the device itself,” Denison said of the unveiling. “We’ve added a new dimension to help you browse, watch and multitask like never before.”

Though there isn’t an official word on when Samsung’s folding phone will debut, the company said that it would begin mass production of the Infinity Flex Display within a “matter of months.”

All that display real estate isn’t going to waste, tiger. Samsung says it will also debut something called “multi-active window,” which will allow up to three applications to run simultaneously on the device.

During the event, Glen Murphy, Google head of Android UX, also announced that the Mountain View tech giant is working closely with Samsung on the foldable phone’s debut. He said that Android will fully support the new display tech.

Samsung isn’t the only company actively working on folding displays. Apple is probably developing similar tech behind-the-scenes if its patent applications are any indication. In the Android sphere, Lenovo, Xiaomi, and Huawei have also teased folding smartphones.

But it’s becoming clear that Samsung is banking big on the foldable display technology. Back in October, Samsung’s mobile CEO, D.J. Koh, told CNET that foldable phones aren’t a “gimmick” and will be here to stay.

Whether that gamble will pay off in an era of slowing smartphone sales across the board remains to be seen.