Samsung may launch foldable smartphone before Note 8 this year

A Chinese tipster has reported that Samsung’s next smartphone will not be Note 8 but its first flagship foldable smartphone that will go by the name of “Galaxy X”.

With Samsung Galaxy S8 & S8 Plus behind us, the rumor mill has shifted its focus to the next flagship device. A Chinese leaker who goes by the name of @mmddj_china on Twitter posted a couple of tweets last week which were ignored at first because of the unboxing event of Samsung Galaxy S8 & S8 Plus.

The tipster revealed that Samsung Galaxy Note 8 would launch in the fourth quarter of 2017 while the foldable smartphone Galaxy X is coming out in the third quarter of this year.

The rumors about foldable or bendable smartphones first surfaced last year when it was reported that Samsung might be working on turning the idea of foldable devices into reality under its project named “Project Valley”. Samsung filed for the patent of foldable smartphone and tablet earlier in 2016.

Sources said that this foldable smartphone could be a 7-inch tablet with an option to become a 5-inch smartphone through turning mechanism. Also, the smartphone would feature 3 GB of RAM with a Snapdragon 620 or a Snapdragon 820. Other leaks suggested the phone will come in two variants: Galaxy X1 and Galaxy X1 Plus and with three biometric recognition options; the iris scanner, the fingerprint scanner and the palm print.

It is also reported that Samsung has pushed back the release of Note 8 because of the late unveiling of Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, which were initially supposed to be launched at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017. Galaxy Note 8 will purportedly feature a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen with 4K resolution, a dual-camera and AI assistant, Bixby.

Nothing is official at this point. We will update you when there is a further development in the story.