All the Incoming Foldable Phones of 2019

With Google betting on a foldable future for Android, it seems all phone manufacturers are getting these type of devices ready. Even Apple is reportedly looking into this form factor (though probably not this year) that offers the convenience of extreme portability when folded and a larger screen whenever you need it.Credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesClearly, foldable phones and the return of the slider phone will be the hottest trends this year. Here’s a look at the flexible phones that have been announced so far, and what we could eventually see.

Huawei Mate X

Huawei’s folding phone is here, and at €2,299, the Mate X is not going to come cheaply.

Credit: Tom’s GuideStill, you get a lot for your money if you splash out for this folding phone. Unfolded, the Mate X acts as an 8-inch tablet. But fold the device, and you’ve got two screens — a front-facing 6.6-inch screen augmented by a 6.4-inch panel on back. That screen can double as a mirror when you take a photo of someone using the Mate X’s camera. (Huawei is keeping mum on the camera specs at this point.) The folded Mate X is just 11mm thin — there’s no gap between the screens — so it should fit easily into a pocket.

Credit: Tom’s GuideThe Mate X packs plenty of power with a Kirin 980 processor and a Balong 5000 modem that lets this device connect to 5G networks. A pair of batteries combine to offer 4,500 mAh of battery life to keep the massive screens powered up.

We’re expecting to see the Mate X arrive in June, though in keeping with Huawei’s recent launch strategy, we’re unlikely to see this foldable phone in the U.S.

MORE: 7 Ways the Huawei Mate X Beats the Galaxy Fold

Samsung Galaxy Fold

After years where it seemed like a Samsung foldable phone was on the verge of being launched, Samsung finally made good on years of hype. The Galaxy Fold is coming April 26, with a starting price of $1,980. That version of the Fold will connect over LTE, but Samsung is also offering a 5G-ready version.

The Fold will use the Infinity Flex display Samsung introduced last November. When unfolded, the display expands to 7.3 inches. Samsung’s App Continuity feature will let you resume using the app you had open on the folded-up 4.6-inch display in tablet mode. And multitasking supports lets you run three apps at once.

The batteries are split into two, one on each side, for a combined power pack of 4,380 mAh. The 7-nanometer processor powering the device is aided by 12GB of RAM. And the Galaxy Fold offers six cameras total — three on the back panel, two inside, and one up front.

Credit: phoneoftime/YouTubeIn the buildup to the Galaxy Fold’s release, some users who claim to have gotten early glimpses at the foldable claim that you can see a visible crease on the Fold’s plastic display. Samsung isn’t alone in this regard; eagle-eyed viewers have cited similar issues in Mate X demo videos. Nevertheless, Samsung apparently wants to nip concerns about durability in the bud, releasing a video that shows the folding tests the Galaxy Fold has to endure.

The Fold may just be Samsung’s initial entry into the new field of foldable phones. Assorted patent filings indicate Samsung has other designs on the drawing board, from a phone that folds in two places to a device that can bend its way around your arm. These are just patents so they may never result in shipping products — and likely won’t in 2019 — but it shows just how serious Samsung is about folding devices.

MORE: Galaxy Fold vs. Huawei Mate X: Which Foldable Phone Will Win?

Royole FlexPai

The world’s first foldable phone already debuted last November. It isn’t as polished as Huawei or Samsung’s but, hey, the little Chinese David beat the two Goliaths to be first to market. Called the FlexPai, it has a 7.8-inch AMOLED screen with a 1920 x 1440 resolution and measures 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches.
Credit: Tom’s GuideThe Snapdragon 855-powered Flexpai has two cameras rated at 16 and 20 megapixels, and comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage in its $1,318 base model. You can already order it from Royole, though the company warns it may take 60 to 90 days for your order to ship.

We had a chance to go hands-on with the FlexPai during CES, and it’s a more polished experience than initial videos of the phone might have you believe. Folding the FlexPai is relatively fluid, and you can use the phone in full-screen, phone-sized and tent modes. The device also doesn’t feel that heavy. Still, the FlexPai felt a little unfinished, like it had been rushed to market to beat the bigger players. We hope to eventually test out the cameras and see how this phone holds up to everyday use.

Motorola

The brand now owned by Lenovo may resuscitate its legendary RAZR model in the form of a foldable phone, at least judging from US Patent and Trademark Office patents found by Dutch tech blog Mobielkopen and confirmed by a January report in the Wall Street Journal.

Credit: Yanko Design

According to TechRadar, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said that foldable screens may be the key to reintroduce the RAZR, a really compact flip phone that expands into a full screen similar to the 6.5-inch phones we have today.

“With the new technology, especially folding screens, I think you will see more and more innovation in our smartphone design,” he told TechRadar. “so hopefully what you just described [the RAZR] will be developed or realized very soon.” Patents spotted on the World Intellectual Property Office database seem to back that approach up. A firm named Yanko Design followed weeks later with a mockup, seen below, based on sketches filed in those patents.

Motorola essentially confirmed it will come out with a foldable phone in an interview with Engadget. Motorola has “no intention of coming later than everybody else in the market,” Motorola vice president of global product Dan Dery said.

MORE: Motorola Razr Rumors: Release Date, Price and Specs

Xiaomi

Xiaomi’s folding phone has gone from prototype to a more polished promotional video that emphasizes what an eye-catching design Xiaomi is working on. It’s a double-folding phone where the top and bottom of the tablet-sized screen fold down, leaving you with a compact (if chunky) smartphone.

The latest video, posted to Weibo, shows us what the phone will look like when it folds and how it will work when unfolded. Xiaomi’s effort could be called the Xiaomi Dual Flex or Xiaomi MIX Flex, and it’s unclear when it will available.

Oppo

There have been rumblings about Oppo’s foldable phone plans, first uncovered by Mobielkopen in the form of patent filings. And now the Chinese phone maker has come out and said that it’s ready to build a folding phone — if there’s enough interest.

Credit: Brian Shen/WeiboWhile there are few details about specs for this device, Oppo vice president of Chinese sales and marketing Brian Shen took to Weibo to post photos of a foldable prototype. Like Huawei’s Mate X, Oppo’s take on a foldable phone has the screen wrap around the outside of the fold, leaving you with two screens on either side of the device when it’s folded up.

In his post, Shen said the foldable phone could enter mass production if Oppo sees enough customer demand.

ZTE

Credit: MobielkopenThe 2017 Axon M was more flop than foldable, thanks to a dual-screen design that reminds me of the LG patent. But that’s not the end of the line for ZTE. In an interview, ZTE Marketing VP Jeff Yee said that they will get “something that’s truly bendable.” 

ZTE has filed patents not just for a phone that folds in in itself, but also a phone with a wrap-around display. While drawings reveal the general design of each, their size, price, and development progress is not yet known.

LG

Forget LG coming out with a foldable phone at Mobile World Congress, as had been rumored. Instead, the company showed off the new LG G8 ThinQ and 5G-ready LG V50 ThinQ phones, right after LG president Kwon Bong-seok, told the Korea Times that it’s premature to come out with a folding device. “We have reviewed releasing the foldable smartphone when launching 5G smartphone but decided not to produce it,” the LG executive said. Instead, the company is focusing on its 5G device for now.

Credit: Tom’s GuideLG is experimenting with a second screen, but it’s not quite the folding display that other phone makers have developed. When it unveiled the LG V50, the company also showed off an add-on called the Dual Display that clips on to LG’s new phone, adding a second 6.2-inch panel. The display lets you run two apps at once and it’s consistent with an LG patent discovered earlier by Letsgodigital.

The Dual Display add-on won’t be coming to the U.S. LG hasn’t announced pricing.

Still, let’s not assume LG has given up on a foldable device entirely, especially after IP Park, chief technology officer and president of LG Electronics, told us at CES that his company was working on both rollable and foldable phones.
Credit: Lets Go DigitalIn a filing with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, LG has applied to register three brand names: Flex, Foldi, and Duplex. The latter may refer to the dual-screen phone. Flex is already in use in of LG’s curved phone, the G Flex 2. It seems logical to think that Foldi may refer to a foldable screen phone.

There’s also another patent — filed on November 20, 2018 — that shows this strange foldable by LG:Credit: Lets Go Digital

MORE: Smartphones With the Longest Battery Life – A Comparison

Other prototypes

We’re doubtlessly going to hear from other device makers about foldable phone plans, especially if the Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X prove to be popular once they ship. For now, though, we’ll have to satisfy ourselves with concept designs.

Credit: Lets Go DigitalOne of the more interesting efforts comes from Sharp and features a candy-bar shaped design that folds in two. Interestingly, Sharp’s phone leaves some of the screen exposed when folded, presumably so that you can check the time, see incoming calls and read notifications. Dutch blog Let’s Go Digital used Sharp’s patent filings to sketch out what such a device would look like.

Google has patents of its own for a phone that folds in two and three places. That, plus Google’s work on a version of Android that supports devices with flexible screens, has fueled speculation that we could one day see a foldable Pixel.

2020: Apple?

And finally, there’s Apple. The Cupertino company is not talking about its foldable plans at all, but there’s no doubt they are working on exploring different designs, as this patent on hinge designs show.

Credit: Patently AppleMost likely, Tim Cook and Jony Ive will wait until Google, Samsung, Huawei, and company iron out all the many technological kinks. But perhaps, if the format takes off as these companies and the Westworld scriptwriters think it will, Apple may be left behind in the Next Big Thing.