Samsung's first foldable device may only have arrived in retail shelves this year, but it has been cooking in the oven for quite a few years. The Galaxy Fold is one complex and beautiful piece of machinery that makes foldable displays a reality, and Samsung has now published a post titled ‘From Concept to Creation: Designing the Galaxy Fold' that takes us through some of the design choices and the thought process behind the Fold.
Nearly 1000 prototypes were tested before Galaxy Fold design was finalized
Samsung says that it studied how people fold and unfold various things, such as books and wallets, in their day-to-day life to finalize the form factor of the Galaxy Fold. Its design team also “constructed over 1,000 prototypes using a wide array of materials, including foam board and various fabrics” before settling for the in-folding design, which is, in our opinion, a lot more sensible than a foldable display that folds outwards. The main display was chosen to be 7.3 inches in size so it could offer sufficiently large screen real estate and still be easy to carry around.
Samsung also made sure the two halves of the device are equally heavy for a balanced feel, while the fingerprint sensor is located where a user's thumb naturally falls. Of course, an in-display fingerprint reader would be comfortable for both right and left-handed users, but that was clearly not an option considering the foldable display is made of plastic and wouldn't handle the pressure needed to operate in-display fingerprint readers. And physical fingerprint readers are superior when it comes to speed and accuracy, so we're not exactly complaining that the $2000 Fold doesn't have the newer fingerprint tech from the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10.
