The first folding smartphone will go on sale in Taiwan in early January when a limited number of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold smartphones hit the market with a price tag of NT$68,888 (US$2,287).
According to Samsung, the Galaxy Fold will be available in Taiwan starting on Jan. 4. It will come in two colors — space silver and cosmos black — and be equipped with a continuous 7.3-inch screen display.
When the phone is folded inward, it will have a 4.6-inch screen on the outside for functions such as screen viewing, text messaging and phone conversations, the company said.
The new gadget also features six cameras, using the same sensors as the Galaxy S10+, and has 12GB of RAM, and 512GB of non-expandable storage, the company said.
The Android-based phone was first introduced in South Korea in early September and then went on sale in other markets such as the United Kingdom, the United States, France, China and Japan starting in late September.
Jacob Chen (陳啟蒙), vice president of Samsung Taiwan’s mobile and information business unit, said earlier this week that the company is initially targeting early bird consumers for the new phone in Taiwan and the supply will be limited.
The company has yet to team up with any telecom operators in Taiwan to market the Galaxy Fold, Chen said, expecting consumers to buy the phone directly from Samsung and then get a separate subscription for phone service from a telecom operator.
The phone will not initially support 5G technology because Taiwan has yet to introduce a 5G network, Chen said, but Samsung will launch another model in the local market for 5G in the first quarter of next year.
In mid-December, Samsung President Young Sohn told foreign news media that his company had already sold about 1 million foldable Galaxy Fold smartphones. More
By Jiang Ming-yan and Frances Huang Enditem/ls
