Galaxy Fold Watch concept is nice, but don’t bank on it hitting the shelves

The Galaxy Fold hasn’t even hit the shelves yet, but that hasn’t stopped rumors circulating about Samsung’s next foldable handset — dubbed the Galaxy Fold Watch — and the latest web the rumor mill has spun is that it could be worn on a wrist like a watch. Best not get too excited, though: the supporting evidence comes in the form of a patent filing, and we all know the firm files them week in, week out, and the bulk of what it envisages never comes to fruition.

That said, there’s no harm in pondering what life would be like with a smartphone that can be wrapped around your wrist when it’s not in use. For starters, it would mean you wouldn’t have to fork out for both a smartphone and a smartwatch — the former would serve as the latter when it’s stowed. Second, there would be no need to fret about where you’re going to store your device on a night out, run or while in the gym — it would be with you at all times.

The purported handset, as per the above sketch, is outfitted with a complicated sliding mechanism that prevents the screen from rolling back up once it’s been unfurled, and has a series of magnets dotted around the top and bottom to keep it fastened when it’s affixed to a wrist, minimising the risk of it falling off. There’s also a camera on the front and back, a volume rocker on the left-hand side, a power button on the right and a charging port on the bottom.

Samsung isn’t ready to reinvent the wheel just yet

Still, while the concept looks fantastic and like something out of an Iron Man movie, it’s highly unlikely that’s the direction Samsung is headed in for its next foldable. After all, it’s still experimenting with foldable screens, trying to prove that an inwards-folding screen is better than an outwards-folding one — à la Huawei Mate X — while eliminating technical hitches relating to lifespan and durability, so it most certainly isn’t ready to reinvent the wheel just yet.

Galaxy Fold

• Model: SM-F900F
• Dimensions: Unfolded: 160.9 x 117.9 x 6.9 mm Folded: 160.9 x 62.9 x 15.5 mm
• Display: 7,3" (185.4mm) Super AMOLED
• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
• Camera: 16 MP, CMOS F2.2 & 12MP, CMOS F1.5/F2.4Wide & 12MP, CMOS F2.4 Telephoto

More specifications