If this photo is genuine, then we've just had one of the clearest views yet of the Samsung Galaxy X, the first 'properly' foldable smartphone to be released.
The Galaxy X leaks comes from Dutch tech site TechTastic (opens in new tab), which has found a picture of the supposedly-impending device. It takes a lot of cues from the current Samsung Galaxy S8, but is devoid of sensors on the front.
TechTastic posits that this is due to the fact the Galaxy X will have a screen on the back (which becomes the front when folded.
This would jive with the patent applications for the fully-foldable phone we've seen - but it's not clear if that's how this phone will work. Are those lugs at the top designed to clip into the bottom?
Raising the contrast of the image doesn't highlight anything (and does make it look like there's a watermark in the corner that's not been made clear) but if correct, the whole front of the phone bar the top is a screen.
Stretchy phone
This rumor comes alongside the news that Samsung is going to be unveiling a stretchable 9.1-inch OLED panel at the Society of Information Display (SID) 2017 in the US.
Although nowhere near a commercial release, the display is able to stretch out 12mm from the screen before heading back into its original state, according to the Korea Herald.
“While current flexible OLED is able to be transformed in only one side, this stretchable OLED can be transformed - whether curved, bended or rolled - in both sides, above and below,” a Samsung spokesperson told The Korea Herald.
This is a long way from commercialization, as the technology needed to make this kind of screen easily and cost-effectively reproduced is a long way off, but it shows that Samsung clearly believes in the future of the technology and makes a Galaxy X handset far more likely.
