With the switches often thrown by a who's-who list of G-List reality TV celebrities, the Christmas lights are flickering on in towns across the UK. That means a number of things; it means Turkeys are now quaking in their proverbial boots; it means there will now be a mad dash to the shops to get everything sorted in time for the big day; it means tech sales of the latest and greatest will probably spike massively; it means every major launch of 2016 is now out the way; and it means we're left looking towards 2017 for all the tantalising details of forthcoming products.Next year promises to be quite a big one for smartphones too, as several key products are anticipated to shake things right up. So what's to look forward to specifically next year? Tech firms will no doubt build on the momentum of VR as an emerging medium, with new hardware and games; Apple is poised to completely revamp the iPhone line in Q4 with an all-glass build and the implementation of AMOLED displays; and, the subject of this article, the Samsung Galaxy X, will emerge as the first phone with a truly, fully flexible and folding Super AMOLED display packed in a unique form factor.
Samsung Galaxy X Design & Display: Clamshell Flip-Phone
So far the rumours we've seen have repeatedly stated that the Galaxy X will feature a folding flexible Super AMOLED display; this will allow the handset to be a full-size smartphone, which can then be folded up into a more compact form factor. Essentially, what this sounds like, and what a few Samsung design patents would also suggest, is a return to the 90's flip-phone clam-shell design but with a folding touch display. And rest assured, this won't be a step backwards; the classic flip-phones had small, low-resolution, non-touch displays embedded in one half, attached via a hinge to a traditional dial-pad on the other half. This isn't so for the Galaxy X, from what we can gather, it will feature a single continuous touchscreen across the two segments of the phone - the display will fold in the middle via a unique hinge mechanism, and this will not impact the display's structural integrity, image quality, or touch capability. It will also be a decent quality Super AMOLED panel - Samsung's speciality as king of displays right now.
We've seen multiple phone-makers including Samsung incorporate Always-On display elements in recent devices, an acknowledgement that users like to be able to glance at their sleeping handset and still see basic info like the time and date at a minimum. Naturally it would be possible to integrate this into the folding Super AMOLED display when open, with the user perhaps being able to prop the phone in its "open" position on the nightstand like an alarm clock. Alternatively, a small, low-power display panel mounted on the back panel might be able to convey basic info in sleep mode when the handset is closed.
Samsung Galaxy X Camera
As mentioned in the hardware section, the camera capabilities do, to an extent, depend upon what clever jiggery-pokery the processor SoC is capable of; things like 4K video, for example. So, it remains to be seen what the next-gen chips are capable of. Frankly, Samsung doesn't have to do too much to impress me considering that if it implements the very same 12MP, f/1.7, 1/2.5" size sensor and other bits, and bobs from the Galaxy S7 such as the OIS module, it will already be onto a winner. Over-engineering what is already a brilliant camera setup would be the wrong route to take in my view.