Samsung reveals specs of Galaxy Fold ahead of US launch

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday revealed the specifications of the world’s first commercial foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold, including its weight and thickness, 10 days ahead of its launch in the United States.

According to an infographic uploaded on Samsung’s online newsroom homepage, the Galaxy Fold has a 4.6-inch cover display and, when unfolded, the device turns into a 7.3-inch Infinity Flex Display-based tablet PC. 

The Samsung device weighs 263 grams, and it is 7.5 millimeters thick when unfolded and 17 millimeters when folded. Samsung had revealed the display specs when it announced the completion of the foldable device in February, but it had not disclosed the weight and thickness.

Huawei’s foldable model, the Mate X, weighs 32 grams more than the Samsung Galaxy Fold and is 11 millimeters when folded, according to news reports about the product when it was announced at the Mobile World Congress in February.

Samsung’s revelation of the product specs seems to be aimed at preventing potential risks of patent infringement after it launches the world’s first foldable device in the US on April 26.

On Friday, preorders for the Galaxy Fold were made in the US, which sold out in one day.

After the US market, the Galaxy Fold will be released in 15 countries in Europe on May 3. The foldable smartphone will be introduced to the Korean market as a device powered by the fifth-generation network in mid-May.

The Galaxy Fold is equipped with six versatile cameras from cover to cover, offering users flexibility in snapping photos. It has a next-generation AP chipset -- 7-nanometer 65-bit Octa Core Processor -- and 12 GB of RAM with 512-gigabyte memory, according to the company.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)