According to IANS, “highly-placed” sources have confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy Fold will finally make its way to the Indian market on October 1. Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the foldable device will officially become available in various international markets starting from September 27. As such, it is indeed possible for Samsung to have the smartphone ready for shipment in India by the start of next month.
These sources have also managed to obtain a ball-park figure of how much the Galaxy Fold will cost in India. It is expected that the device will be priced somewhere within the INR 1.5 lakh to INR 1.75 lack range. Furthermore, interested buyers will reportedly be able to purchase the contraption only via select retail stores through a pre-order system. The report also stares that buyers will get access to specialized customer care services, including one-on-one access to Samsung Experts along with 24/7 online and offline support.
Samsung Galaxy Fold: Are The Design Changes Enough?
After the disastrous ordeal Samsung went through with the first batch of Galaxy Fold review units, the brand had to make significant changes to the device’s design. Despite these changes, the phone maker promised that it would not be increasing its price.
The first of the changes made to the Galaxy fold was to extend the outer protective layer underneath the side bezels to prevent users from accidentally peeling them off. This was a serious problem as many thought this layer was a standard screen protector installed to prevent scratches. The next change was the addition or protective caps at both the top and bottom of the hinge to prevent the protective layer from separating on its own, and also to prevent debris from getting in between the layers. Minor design tweaks to reduce the gaps between the hinge and display were also made, along with the addition of more metal to make the device more durable.
While these changes help solve some of the design flaws the Galaxy Fold possessed, it remains to be seen how good of a user experience the device offers as a whole. Once you open up the device, you have a large 7.3-inch, HDR10+ certified AMOLED screen that bears a resolution of 2152 x 1536 pixels. The smaller secondary display on the outside makes use of a 4.6-inch Super AMOLED panel that offers a resolution of 1680 x 720 pixels. While you can get some basic tasks done on this smaller screen, the Galaxy Fold is designed in a way that you can only have the best experience with the phone opened up.
On the back of the handset, you will find a triple camera setup where the primary 12MP camera offers OIS along with variable aperture between f/1.5 and f/2.4. Meanwhile, the secondary 12MP optical camera offers up to 2X optical zoom. Then we have the 16MP ultrawide sensor that is said to capture up to 123-degree shots. At the top-right edge of the larger screen, you get a 10MP + 8MP (depth) camera setup for selfies, with another 10MP selfie camera being housed on top of the smaller display.
Powering this technically-complex contraption is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC that is paired with 12GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The phone will run One UI based on Android 9 Pie out of the box. AKG tuned stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support have been provided to offer immersive sound. As for security, you get a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. All of this runs on a 4,380mAh battery that supports 15W fast wired/wireless charging.
