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A Samsung flip phone-style foldable device is looking more and more likely

At its 2019 Samsung Developer Conference, the phone-maker showed a mockup of its One UI 2 software on what looks like a flip phone. Sorry, Motorola.

Patrick Holland Managing Editor
Patrick Holland has been a phone reviewer for CNET since 2016. He is a former theater director who occasionally makes short films. Patrick has an eye for photography and a passion for everything mobile. He is a colorful raconteur who will guide you through the ever-changing, fast-paced world of phones, especially the iPhone and iOS. He used to co-host CNET's I'm So Obsessed podcast and interviewed guests like Jeff Goldblum, Alfre Woodard, Stephen Merchant, Sam Jay, Edgar Wright and Roy Wood Jr.
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  • Patrick's play The Cowboy is included in the Best American Short Plays 2011-12 anthology. He co-wrote and starred in the short film Baden Krunk that won the Best Wisconsin Short Film award at the Milwaukee Short Film Festival.
Patrick Holland
galaxy-fold-2-samsung.png

Samsung's mockup of what a horizontal folding phone might look like.

James Martin/CNET

A year ago at Samsung's annual developer conference, the Galaxy Fold stole the show. It was the first time the foldable phone was shown. A year later at the 2019 Samsung Developer Conference in San Jose on Tuesday, there was nary a word about the Fold -- until the keynote turned to One UI 2, a software overlay for the company's phones , tablets and smartwatches. When showing off One UI 2, Samsung showed a mockup of a phone that folded in half horizontally, kind of like a flip phone.

This wasn't a formal announcement of a new Galaxy Fold 2 or a Galaxy Fold Square. But it does validate a story by Bloomberg that ran in September claiming that Samsung's next foldable phone would fold inward to become a compact square. The graphic on the screen showed what for all intents and purposes is a 2019 take on what a flip phone would look like.

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At SDC 2019, Samsung showed off two different ways its Infinity Flex Display could fold. The left one is the Galaxy Fold. The one on the right is a mockup of an unannounced phone that folds into a small square.

James Martin/CNET

Curiously enough this follows on recent news by Motorola that it would be launching a foldable version of its iconic Moto Razr by the end of the year. But aside from two slides, one showing the mockup and another showing how the screen folded, there weren't any solid details about the square folding phone.

If the graphic showing the different ways Samsung's Infinity Flex displays can fold is any indication, that phone could be tall, about the same height as the current Galaxy Fold, but it would fold down to be more pocketable.

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Originally published Oct. 29.