After months of anticipation,... only slightly dampened by leaked images in the past week,... Samsung Electronics has showcased its first-ever foldable smartphone and its latest flagship line-up.
Watchers say the foldable device, while expensive, could change the ways we use our phones forever.
Oh Soo-young reports.
Samsung Electronics is making waves in the global smartphone market,... launching one of the world's first foldable smartphones,... and its new flagship line-up at its highly-anticipated "Unpacked" launch event.
Held in San Francisco on Wednesday,... the South Korean mobile giant introduced its latest line-up of premium mobile handsets.
All eyes were on the Galaxy Fold,... the first bendable smartphone to be released by the company.
The seven-point-three-inch 'Infinity Flex Display' can be folded 'hundreds of thousands of times," without wear and tear,... according to Samsung,... which took seven years to develop the technology.
When folded, a second display measures 4-point-six inches
The phone also features six cameras.
Samsung's flagship Galaxy S10 models are also set to break the conventions of smartphone technology.
The flagship models S10 and the 1 terabyte S10 Plus feature the world's first ultra-sonic fingerprint sensor,... built into their OLED displays,... which will come almost bezzle-free, and with a triple-lens camera setup on the rears.
A 5G-ready version of the phone was also revealed,... along with the simpler S10E model.
But the question is, whether consumers will be convinced,... as the new models come with hefty price tags -- the foldable device set to retail for a staggering one-thousand-nine-hundred-and-80 U.S. dollars.
Industry tracker Counterpoint Research projected earlier this week that the latest Galaxy series will top 40 million sales within its first year on the market -- about five million more than the previous S9 version.
The bestselling Galaxy line-up to date is the S7 Series released three years ago,... which sold 50 million units within 12 months.
In South Korea,... Galaxy S10 handsets will hit the shelves on March 8th,... with preorders starting Monday.
The 5G will be released near the end of March,... and the Galaxy Fold in late April.
Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.