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I'm Jessica Dolcourt.
I'm Roger Cheng.
And we have just had a hell of a week because a couple days ago Samsung launched the Galaxy Fold, it's first foldable phone.
And really the first foldable phone anywhere.
This is gonna be such a big thing.
Yeah, foldable phones is gonna be a huge topic for 2019.
It's poised to really shake up the market Really give us a little of energies.
Smart phones have been kind of boring and so these foldable designs are really gonna energize things.
Yeah, but foldable phone is a category.
It's such a new category.
It's like the Wild West.
It means a lot of different things.
So for example, you know the Galaxy Fold.
It's kind of like an innie.
It's got a screen on the inside and it opens up into a tablet.
Yeah, whereas the main X is actually kind of the reverse, right.
It's one display on the outside.
You open it up and it combines to make a larger display.
Right, and the Galaxy Fold it's got the smaller screen on the outside, 4.6 inches and 7.3 inches on the inside,
But with the Mate, it's basically one screen that has three different configurations.
And you got a chance to see it.
Yes, it's pretty interesting.
It was, the larger display on the front and a smaller on, the second one, they combine to create this big screen.
It actually can sense the orientation of phone.
So as you turn it, it'll know which side you're looking at and Have the screen pop in its place.
So that's really interesting to me, that you've got this 6.6 inch configuation that's supposed to be sort of your daily driver, and then a smaller basically 6.4 inch, 6.38 to be exact, but, And then this eight-inch OLED that sort of expand.
And I remember that one thing they were saying on stage was that there's no notch, it's truly edge-to-edge.
Did you get that sense, too?
Yeah, so I definitely had a chance to check out the display.
It is sort of full-screen, continuous, as they said.
Interestingly, once you fold it in, there's that little gap in the Samsung phone.
There is no gap.
It's extremely flush on this device.
I feel like that the Samsung phone, that hinge height is much higher.
And that is something that was really shown off on the screen.
That's a point of pride for [INAUDIBLE].
It seems you can stick a pencil in there.
And it doesn't fold flat and it seems like that hinge system might be part of the reason why are these phones are so expensive.
I know that's something we're gonna talk about.
But I think we should talk a little bit more about the differences between these two philosophies.
So we know that Samsung's got this loop of a hinge We know that it has two screens.
We know that it's got six cameras, [LAUGH], right?
Whereas, the [UNKNOWN] has got basically one big screen, it's got four cameras, but it doesn't have that notch, as they made a big deal of.
Basically embedded cameras is bind on the device also access like a broad economic grip for.
So it's interesting concept.
Is that weird or is it cool?
Because I can't tell, like I think that the justification for it look that you can use it one handed and your other hand is free.
That makes sense.
But that might make sense in that marketing way where if you unfold it and you're like, well, it looks flat, but it only looks flat because this thing is so big, or what do I do with it?
I mean, what was your sense?
I'm just so, I'm so jealous.
[LAUGH]
Because I want it.
I want it in my hands.
Yes.
I want to see them side by side, and I don't get to, and you did.
And I kind of hate you right now.
[LAUGH]
But I also love you.
Well, I will say that it's the best marketing offerings for it.
It's actually pretty legitimate.
I got a chance to unfold and unfold and I held the grip.
I could see myself using it like one hand on the subway rail, the other hand holding this thing.
That was the marketing perspective they gave me.
BUt I was holding it, it's very light.
It's surprisingly light for the, the amount of hardware you're getting.
So they said on stage that there were gonna be three cameras but you found out that they actually gonna be four, what is the deal with that?
So there is a, there are three cameras, one was hidden basically, there's a-
How do they hide a camera?
There's basically the spot that's blank right now, ther will be a fourth camera put in, and their March event where they are expected to launch another flagship phone, they are gonna talk about another camera there and that specific specialized camera which The CEO said was, an industry first will be the fourth camera on the Mate X as well.
So that's interesting because you've got six cameras on the Galaxy Fold, you've got four cameras on the Mate.
They're both 5G capable.
The Galaxy Fold is either 4G or 5G, the Mate X is all 5G all the time.
Yes.
But there's such a big price difference.
Yeah.
With Samsung when we sell the 1980 nineteen eight price tag we all kind of gasped.
And that is for 4G I am assuming?
So I bet it is an even two thousand Then we had Huawei come out and say 2,300 euros or roughly $2,600, which also makes the Samsung phones seem like a bargain.
How is that possible?
The Samsung phone is already twice the price of the most expensive other Samsung phone.
Right, and I talked to the CEO about this.
He said that he acknowledged that obviously the price is gonna be a big barrier.
And he said that it'd take at least two years before
Get the price of this thing down to something that would be more like a mainstream phone.
You and I were sitting next to each other during the Mate ten.
Mate X, See, see Apple has just kinda screwed with my mind.
Yes.
I see an X and I'm like, ten!
Any way so we were sitting next to each other during this [INAUDIBLE] X launch and I remember the price was announced and everyone it wasn't a sigh.
It wasn't quite a groan, it was just more like men.
[INAUDIBLE] those gaps, there was a lot of surprise to it.
It's pretty bosy
It is
To have a phone that, I mean $1,000 is
Spend $200 okay but it's brand new technology and it will get cheaper over time, but over $2,000.
Yep yep, and not even a little bit over 2,600 is significantly over that Galaxy [INAUDIBLE]
so.
You can almost buy three iPhone 10s'.
There you go.
But they don't fold.
Right, not yet.
But I also found out, in a separate session where I was not allowed to hold this device, I was only allowed to look at it, I found out that this is maybe the tip of the foldable iceberg.
Right now, we have the first examples, and I think that these companies Want to make a premium show of it.
They want to energize and excite everyone and show them what you can do.
And also take advantage of the shape and sort of justify why it is that you want to have that.
Well, it's got six cameras, or it's got four cameras, and one of them's hidden.
But over time, I think the plan is to sort of perfect everything.
These are sort of beta products in a way So to perfect the process, materials might get cheaper and then there might be actually more affordable foldable phones.
That's at least what Huawei's Product Manager was staying.
Yeah, I'm sure there are options for it but right like you said, this is an innovation and they want consumers paying for it.>> So then this is interesting because we both went and we talked to another company, TCL Right, and so we already know that cheaper foldable devices are coming and they might not just be phones.
Right, yeah, TCL has this, they tout this DragonHinge.
This is their own version of a hinge that will allow for a family of foldable devices.
We saw some prototypes for ones that could turn into smartwatches, ones that turn into bigger tablets,
A whole range of these different devices, right?
The whole idea was that they weren't gonna try charge these crazy premium.
They're trying to get them up to be a little bit cheaper than what we've got in the market, right?
Or perhaps significantly cheaper if you're comparing it to the [UNKNOWN], right?
So I do think this is interesting.
This is just the beginning.
I don't know, I'm still a little skeptical, but that's because I haven't seen either of these devices.
You know, I don't exactly know when we're gonna see the galaxy fold.
It has a launch date, so April 26th and for the while we made X that launch date is summer.
Middle of the year.
People said June or July.
He did make an interesting point that, he said that the device could technically go out today, but they're waiting for the 5G networks to turn on.
And that is a good point and I think maybe that's where the Samsung has the advantage.
Maybe the Galaxy Fold 4G.
Yeah.
Starts hitting the market before the 5G because those networks just aren't ready yet.
Right, do we need to have a 5G network in order to have a foldable phone.
I think for Huawei that's what they are trying to say.
This is the fastest foldable phone there is.
You saw at least one, are you still sceptical?
I'm a lot less sceptical now that I've tried it.
It actually worked pretty well.
He pulled up CNN, he pulled up YouTube, got the Chrome browser up and running, All worked pretty well.
It wasn't quite as buggy as say the FlexPai that we tried at CS.
Right.
But you're the professional.
[INAUDIBLE]
You're the reviewer, what's your take on this?
I really think that there are a lot of things that we're just not gonna know until we have these in our hands and until we have them side by side.
And then we've got premium versus premium and they have such different approaches.
It's It's not quite night and day but it's sort of still is, because I think we are going to figure out which folds, folds better.
Right, and what are the tradeoffs, does it really make a difference to have that flat hinge or is there some other benefit or drawback to having those designs.
And that's why I said that these are basically baited devices, because there is so much learning that we have to do.
Together on our side, right, like learning what works and for the early adopters who buy them, these companies are gonna be taking in that feedback and they're gonna be using that to turn out more, better devices down the line.
So I think that raises the question that we talk about a lot, which is who are these devices for and should people run out and buy them?
No, if you're a 1% you've got money to burn and a spare phone to use, then yes.
For everyone else, I'd probably hang on.
The revolution's coming, just not today or tomorrow.
Well, it is really fun being on the tip of the sphere, especially if we can actually See more of them.
Hack into you Samsung.
Anyway, we will have so much more affordable coverage, so stick with us.
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