Galaxy F: Samsung’s First Foldable Phone Might Be A Total Flop If It Launches This Year, ‘BGR’ Warns
Earlier reports had suggested that the Samsung Galaxy F, which is expected to be the company’s first foldable phone, might be launched early in 2019 but not before the company takes the wraps off the Galaxy S10. But with Samsung mobile head DJ Koh having recently announced that the Galaxy F could be arriving later this year, a new report from BGR has warned that the device might not be all that it’s cracked up to be as it becomes another example of a rushed Samsung product to flop with consumers.
As reported by Forbes on Tuesday, Koh confirmed to CNBC reporters that Samsung is planning to announce a Galaxy phone with a foldable display. While it was previously rumored that the device could be launched at the Mobile World Congress in February 2019, or one month after the Galaxy S10’s purported arrival at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Koh said that the Galaxy F could debut at the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco in November, adding that surveys have shown that there is consumer appetite for such a device.
While BGR cited that the Samsung Galaxy F could be the device to make up for years of “boring,” evolutionary upgrades from one Galaxy S or Galaxy Note iteration to the next and could also sport a wealth of other advanced selling features, including an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor and up to five cameras, the publication cautioned that the foldable phone might not live up to expectations if it does indeed arrive later this year.
“When Samsung rushes products out the door, they’re almost always awful,” wrote BGR‘s Zach Epstein.
“This has been happening less frequently lately, but it used to happen all the time. Remember when Samsung rushed out its first TV with voice control solely because rumors were swirling that Apple was about to announce a Siri-powered ‘iTV’? It might have been the most frustrating TV ever, and that’s just one of many examples.”
Samsung's Folding Galaxy X Smartphone Will Debut By Year's End Says CEO https://t.co/z4ggcUxL6L via @HotHardware
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As further pointed out by Epstein, the Samsung Galaxy F appears to be an example of a device that has gone through numerous issues in its development through the years. He noted how the foldable phone was originally teased for a 2017 launch, only for Samsung to delay its debut to 2018 and then to 2019 right before Koh announced the plans for a November reveal. With Samsung apparently having made its announcement on the heels of news that Huawei plans to become the first company to sell a foldable smartphone, Epstein stressed that this could be a major red flag for anyone interested in purchasing the Galaxy F.
“Samsung appears to be more concerned with announcing its folding Galaxy phone than it is with finishing and launching it.”
As another reason why the Samsung Galaxy F might turn out to be a flop, BGR‘s Epstein opined that Samsung is better when its products are fully matured and refined. The initial Galaxy S and Galaxy Note releases, for instance, were “cheap-feeling piles of plastic” that lacked the premium quality Apple’s competing iPhones possessed. According to Epstein, it took years before both devices reached their full potential, which might not be the case with the Galaxy F, as Samsung is “famously terrible” when it comes to first-generation versions of its devices.
Although Epstein also warned that BGR’s sources noted “even more red flags,” he chose not to expound on these potential issues aside from hinting that the Samsung Galaxy F might be in short supply, with a possible price tag of about $2,000, or more than twice the cost of most high-end handsets out in the market. Furthermore, the device is also expected to be “uncomfortably thick” when folded, based on the folded phone’s supposed prototypes.
