Samsung has detailed some of its plans for the launch of the Galaxy Fold later this year and further emphasized that the Fold is a high-end luxury device.
In an interview with The Verge at MWC, director of product, services and commercial strategy at Samsung UK, Kate Beaumont, said the company would hold another Unpacked event at the beginning of April.
The press event will happen a few weeks before the Fold is expected to go on sale on April 26th at an astronomical price of $1,980 USD (about $2,609 CAD).
The price surprised and upset many — just take a look at the comments of any article about the Fold — but Samsung has accepted that and isn’t targetting the device at the average consumer.
“This is a super premium device, and we want to make sure it has a concierge-like service and experience, so it’s not going to be on display in all stores,” Beaumont said. “You’re not going to see it on the stands, we want to make sure it’s a very personal experience. There will be quite intensive aftercare that goes with it as well.”
Further, Beaumont said there would be less supply of the Fold than Samsung would have of the S10 at launch.
In other words, don’t expect to walk into a store, try out the Fold, sign a contract and walk out with it. It’ll be a more limited, restricted process.
Beaumont didn’t elaborate on which stores would carry the Fold, or provide any other details about the company’s retail plans.
Samsung ‘considered a lot of options’ when designing the Fold
However, she did say that Samsung thought a lot about usability, durability and other aspects of the phone.
“There’s things like if you want to put a case on it, usability, durability, and we feel that having the screen on the inside is the best way to protect that screen,” Beaumont said. “We have the technology to do a fold that is very very tiny, as of course if you have the fold on the outside it doesn’t take quite the same amount of research and development to get that device to fold as it does something that is folding with a much lower angle degree on it.”
The comment reads like a shot at Huawei’s Mate X, a competitor in the folding phone space. Unlike the Fold’s internal fold, the Mate X folds externally.
While both phones carry concerns about the durability of a folding display, Samsung does have a point about the internal fold offering more protection.
Regardless, the durability question won’t be answered until later this year, after both devices are available for testing.
Samsung also released a video giving a detailed look at the Galaxy Fold, which you can see here.
Source: The Verge
