Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Samsung mobile chief TM Roh has confirmed the company is working on new form factors for AI-powered smartphones.
- The executive hinted that these new form factors would offer large screens and improved portability.
- We know Samsung has dabbled with tri-fold foldable screens before, and the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim is also in the works.
Samsung is all aboard the AI train in 2024, as its Galaxy S24 series and recent foldable phones are equipped with so-called Galaxy AI features. However, the company has now confirmed that it’s working on new form factors for AI-enabled smartphones.
“When you think about ordinary users of traditional smartphones, our current hardware can satisfy those scenarios quite sufficiently. So maybe hardware performance and hardware features have peaked,” Samsung Mobile president TM Roh told the Australian Financial Review.
“But at the same time, this new era of mobile AI calls for new hardware requirements, new performance, new form factors, opening up for new possibilities, so that mobile AI can be better leveraged with new requirements in hardware.”
So what would these new form factors look like, then? Roh explained to the outlet, albeit without delving into details:
In terms of new form factors, maybe we can have even more optimised combinations of portability and large screens.
Samsung has long offered its Z Fold series of foldable phones, offering large internal screens. The company is also reportedly working on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim model, which is said to offer a thinner design than its recently launched Z Fold 6. But this wouldn’t be a new form factor, especially as rival foldable makers already offer ultra-thin devices.
Tri-fold Galaxy Z Fold incoming?
The Galaxy maker has repeatedly demonstrated a variety of other folding display technologies over the years, though, including several tri-fold concepts (see the top of the page and below). This would offer a thicker design than typical foldable phones, but with a much larger display akin to a large tablet. So this would theoretically offer a large screen with improved portability.
Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
Samsung tri fold prototype concept as seen at MWC 2023
TCL also demonstrated tri-folding screen technology a few years ago, but HUAWEI might be the first brand to offer a commercial tri-folding foldable phone. Leaks point to the Chinese brand offering a phone with this tech before the end of the year.
In any event, Roh also confirmed that it was investigating cheaper foldable phones as this was a “key demand” from the market:
Although our key focus is to provide an even more premium experience for foldable users, we are also doing R&D in conjunction with partner companies to [investigate – ed] the possibility of more affordable foldables.
Finally, the Samsung mobile chief noted that AI-powered phones should adopt “new types of inputs” such as “new sensors.”
In any event, we’re curious to hear more about Samsung’s new smartphone form factors. But we hope the company takes its time to polish these designs, as the last thing we want is a repeat of the botched Galaxy Fold launch in 2019.
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