Samsung unveils Flex Hybrid, a possible successor to the Galaxy Z Fold

The Samsung Flex Hybrid comes with a screen that folds and runs at the same time, providing up to 12.4 inches diagonal display in the format of a Galaxy Z Fold phone. By comparison, the latter offers a maximum diagonal of only 7.6 inches.

At the moment, Samsung is taking advantage of the fact that most Galaxy Z Fold competitors are products available exclusively in the Chinese market, made to questionable standards of quality and reliability. But that won’t last long, with indications already emerging that the Galaxy Fold’s dominance of the foldable phone market will come to an end in 2023. Wanting to stay one step ahead of the competition, Samsung demonstrated the Flex Hybrid, a prototype of a Galaxy Z Fold-like device, yet one that also extends horizontally.

Like the LG Rollable prototype that LG never released, Samsung’s foldable and rollable screen phone would have some important advantages, such as the ability to self-adjust to the type of content displayed. For example, the height of the screen could be adjusted to perfectly frame the video being watched on YouTube. Unfortunately, we find much the same drawbacks, with the Flex Hybrid prototype having a rather long transition time when running the screen, which can’t be said for phones that are foldable only. In addition, the actual design is bulky and leaves a lot to be desired in terms of aesthetics. Reliability probably isn’t great either, with the mechanism with so many moving parts representing the definition of an engineering nightmare.

While we can hope to see the Flex Hybrid concept unveiled in more detail at the CES 2023 show, the chances for a commercial product announcement based on this design remain slim, at least in the immediate future.