Samsung shows off foldable phone concept with Infinity Flex Display

After years of rumors and speculation, Samsung finally revealed its foldable phone concept.

Samsung showed off the Infinity Flex Display during its annual developer conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. The phone is expected to launch in 2019.

In a brief demo at SDC, Samsung demonstrated the new flexible display tech that will enable the foldable phone. The company said it was disguising some elements of the phone’s design, but we still got a clear look at the phone folding up from a small tablet size to a pocket-sized phone.

“Infinity Flex represents the biggest leap forward in mobile display technology in the past decade. We’ll be ready to start mass production in the coming months,” Samsung exec said.

The reveal comes at a time when interest in foldable phones is heating up. Chinese company Royole just launched a $1,300 foldable phone called FlexPai. Huawei has also said that it’s working on a foldable 5G phone.

Perhaps the more important question is not when these phones will launch, but if there will be software necessary to make them viable. As I wrote earlier this week when I tried out Royole’s FlexPai, phone makers will need developers to build apps optimized for these foldable phones. 

On that note, Samsung and others got a major piece of good news. Google announced that Android will support foldable phones and make it easier for developers to adapt their apps. Speaking at Google’s Android Dev Summit, the VP of engineering for Android, David Burke, confirmed Google is working to add support for foldable phones to Android.

“We’re enhancing Android to take advantage of this new form factor with as little work as necessary from you,” he told developers in attendance. “It’s an exciting concept and we expect to see foldable products from several Android manufacturers. In fact, we’re already working closely with Samsung on a new device they plan to launch early next year.”