Samsung Galaxy X release date, specs rumors: Samsung's foldable smartphone touted to arrive in second half 2017

Georgia Gana Thursday, January 05, 2017

Toray Industries' 4.6 inch flexible display component supplied to South Korea's Samsung mobile devices is showcased during an exhibition of the company's latest technology in Tokyo, September 14, 2011. | Reuters/Yuriko Nakao

Samsung has been rumored to be developing a foldable smartphone for quite some time now. According to the latest reports, consumers could be seeing the fruits of the South Korean tech giant's labor as the device, currently called the Galaxy X, is touted to arrive later this year.

According to information originating from China, the Samsung Galaxy X will be released in the third or fourth quarter of 2017. This means that the foldable smartphone could see the light of day as early as this July. However, it is important to note that the source of this leak does not have an established track record, so the purported release window should be taken with a grain of salt.

Nevertheless, the Galaxy X, said to be called Project Valley internally, is expected to be one of the flagships that Samsung will be introducing this year. This rumor is also in line with the prediction of Hyundai Securities analyst Kim Dong-Won last November.

"The year 2017 will be the first year of foldable smartphones for the mass market. Following the launches by the Korean firms, other global rivals such as Apple and Google are also likely to unveil their own versions in 2018," Kim said in a report that was obtained by South Korean publication The Investor.

Kim added that starting in the second half of 2017, Samsung Display and LG Display will start production on the sixth-generation flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels.

It can be recalled that the South Korean multinational conglomerate first announced plans to introduce a foldable device in late 2010. Samsung then unveiled a prototype of a smartphone with a flexible AMOLED display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2011.

These past few weeks, patent applications from Samsung have also been revealed and it seemingly gives a glimpse of the upcoming foldable smartphone. Not a lot of technical specifications have been leaked but it is possible that the Galaxy X will be a clamshell-like device with a 4K screen and a curved edge on the bottom.