Bezel-less phones may be the trend now, but flip phones are still not out of the game. Samsung, for one, still has a new Android-powered flip phone in the works, and its first live images just surfaced online recently.
Pictures of the device known as the Samsung W2018 were posted by Chinese phone tipster MMDDJ on Twitter. The images show a premium design with metal unibody casing and a glass likely similar to other Galaxy flagships. It appears to have a single rear camera with fingerprint sensor placed next to the camera module.
The W2018 is the tech giant's follow up to this year's W2017. It is tipped to be the most premium flip phone yet. There is not much known about it at this point, but it is expected to come with high-performing specs like 6 gigabytes (GB) of random access memory (RAM) and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 chip. A 4.2-inch AMOLED display might be included as well, alongside a 12-megapixel (MP) rear camera and a 5 MP front snapper.
Price and release details are still unknown, but Samsung SM-W2018 will likely hit the Chinese market first. This was also the case with SM-W2017, which the company announced last November. If rumors are anything to go by, its price could also fall around $2,000, $1,000 less than the W2017.
Despite the declining appeal of the form factor, Samsung is one of the few smartphone makers which continued producing flip phones. However, their products are mostly released in limited quantities in select Asian markets. The Korean company's latest flip phone was Samsung G298, which was an incremental update to the Samsung W2017.
Apart from W2018, Samsung is also planning to release a foldable smartphone under its Galaxy Note brand. A patent application recently detailed it will work like a dual-screen handset, with each display running its own independent application. The patent is now stored on the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS).
