Samsung may be about to start building a dual-screen foldable phone

Although it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to buy Samsung’s long-rumored Galaxy X foldable phone this year, the company might make a few thousand prototypes, according to industry sources.

Speaking to The Investor, they claim that Samsung is working on a device with a screen that can be folded 180 degrees outwards, consisting of two separate OLED displays with a hinge in the middle - so rather than the glass itself being foldable this sounds more like a modern take on the flip phone.

That’s disappointing, but it sounds like this might just be the next step towards a truly foldable phone, with one of the anonymous sources saying “Samsung seems to be testing the waters with the dual-screen device to gather ideas about its upcoming foldable phone.”

Folding into place

Indeed, that lines up with previous rumors, as we’ve heard before that Samsung is working both on a dual-screen device that matches this description, and on a smartphone with a single flexible OLED screen, with the latter set to launch sometime after the dual-screen model.

According to this latest report, Samsung has already placed an order for enough components to make 2,000-3,000 units of its dual-screen phone in the first half of this year, which also lines up with previous rumors.

With so few units being made you probably won’t be able to buy it, but it would bring us one step closer to a fully foldable and commercially available Samsung Galaxy X.

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James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.