Samsung Rival LG Quietly Preps Foldable Devices Following Galaxy Fold Fiasco

LG Electronics recently showed off its foldable device development, and the South Korean company currently has two devices on the way. On the other end, leading foldable device contender Samsung is experiencing some issues with its own development. Here’s why LG might overtake Samsung in the foldable device race.

LG is working on two different foldable devices, specifically foldable phones. According to The Verge, LG is working on a foldable smartphone that uses a different technology than what we’ve seen from Royole and Samsung so far.

Instead of just having two screens that fold inward, one of the inside sections of the LG device is confirmed to be a transparent screen. Phone owners would be able to adjust this screen’s transparency, allowing them to “retract” the screen if they want to.

The other screen would function normally like a regular smartphone. In the document, the patent didn’t explain in detail how LG would pull off this technology. The South Korean tech giant also has yet to have any big announcements about this new tech.

Meanwhile, Lenovo relied on LG's foldable display technology for the Thinkpad X1. According to Patently Apple, LG’s Kang In-byeong is confident about the LG foldable technology and expects that other companies will take cues from them and step up their game.

This new foldable device reportedly has a 13.3-inch inward-folding display. The Lenovo laptop that uses the LG technology is expected to have a 2020 release.

This “transparent” foldable display idea is very different from Samsung's take on the foldable device. Samsung’s Galaxy Fold had a straightforward foldable screen that’s been made possible with hinge technology. But while the device seemed to do the foldable display right, reviewers easily noticed some problems with the smartphone as early as two days of having it.

While the device boasts great innovation and display, its durability is bad. Since the new smartphone is considered to be a new technology, Samsung put a price tag of a whopping $ 1,980, which seems just a bit too expensive.

After the bad reviews came out, Samsung canceled a Galaxy Fold reveal event in China.

While Samsung has yet to confirm any new decisions in response to the bad reviews and the canceled event, it has been noted that the company is actively working on improving this new device. Potentially, Samsung will have to pull another Galaxy Note 7 recovery to catch up to LG.