Samsung announced its latest foldable phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5, at Unpacked in Seoul on July 26. These devices are now leading the charge in the foldable market's evolution, but TM Roh, head of Samsung's Mobile eXperience Business, confirmed that they're only the beginning. Galaxy tablets are on their way.
As Mr. Roh told us in an interview, Samsung is committed to creating better experiences for customers, and it's doing this by looking beyond mere internal hardware specifications and upgrades. Positive user experiences involve optimization, better software integration with hardware, and clever new form factors.
Speaking of form factors, the book-like Z Fold and flip phone are not the only ones Samsung's exploring. And TM Roh is convinced that foldable tablets will happen (via The Independent).
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Foldable tablets follow the natural order of things
You might remember Samsung Displays numerous foldable form factor experimental devices, such as the Flex G, Flex Note, and Flex S — the latter which is a dual-hinge tablet whose footprint is three times smaller when folded. Whether or not the Flex S form factor will become a reality is unclear, but what TM Roh confirmed at Unpacked through an interview with The Independent is that Samsung is working on foldable tablets.
“The tablet is a very good product category, one where we can apply the foldable format,” TM Roh said. He elaborated: “Why are Samsung Mobile and I so convinced about the foldable? The reason is very simple. Because it has been part of human history and human nature for so long to read books or use notebooks.”
Everyone is familiar with the concept of opening up a book or notepad. And we all instinctively know that, when we fold them, we get to keep the same content, except now it's in a smaller package we can store and carry around more easily. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 follows that principle, although at a smaller scale than a tablet would.
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Tablets are great devices, but they're not as portable as smartphones or even regular books unless they're small enough to almost be mistaken for large-screen phones. Foldable display technology will solve that challenge and allow Samsung customers to carry their large-screen devices everywhere.
“People open up a book to read and open up a notebook to write something. When they're not being used [and are folded shut], it makes them more compact and portable […]. It's just a natural part of human behavior.”
TM Roh said “What has been applied to the smartphone will then spread to the tablet and laptops as well. To that end, we at Samsung are investing a lot of resources. And once that foundational technology is developed and we believe that the product is ready to provide meaningful innovation to consumers, then, of course, we want to introduce them.”
When exactly we might get a foldable Galaxy tablet is unknown. But if you are a fan of the idea, Samsung is hard at work making it a reality and will release a Galaxy tablet once it thinks it nailed the concept.
