Samsung Hints That We’ll See Its Folding Galaxy Phone Next Month

Damien McFerran 15/01/2019 – 8:58am

At the same time as the S10, in fact

Samsung has already revealed that it will be officially unveiling the Galaxy S10 on February 20th at its yearly 'Unpacked' keynote, but a fresh promotional drive by the Korean giant hints that we'll also be seeing the company's other big 2019 flagship release.

Samsung has taken over central Paris with a series of large billboards, both featuring messages in its native alphabet, Hangul. One of the billboards reads “the future unfolds” while the other says“February 20th.”

We already know that the Unpacked event will feature the S10, so the fact that Samsung is directly referencing it with these billboards would suggest that it has a special 'just one more thing' planned for the keynote – and that will surely be its much-hyped folding phone.

Dubbed by many as the 'Galaxy X', Samsung first stab at a folding device may have already been beaten by a rival, but it is sure to be the most important use of this design so far.

With the smartphone market stagnating somewhat in recent years, many are hoping that folding phones will give millions of consumers the trigger they need to upgrade their old device for something a little more different. Samsung – which has been left behind by some of the sector's most recent innovations – could really do with being at the vanguard of this folding revolution.

However, as we said the other week, we're not entirely sure folding phones are going to be anything more than an expensive gimmick, and Samsung's attempt to bring this technology to the masses could end up being something of a folly; folding phones are, as we've seen from examples thus far, ungainly and awkward to use.

Still, this promotional drive does at least show how creative Samsung can be when it puts its mind to it – and shows just how much clout and resource it has. Let's hope that the end result has the desired effect and gives the company a boost, despite our reservations.