LONDON: Samsung said it would launch a smartphone with a folding screen this year, and the question on everyone's lips was whether or not it was something the market really needed.
All of that was shattered when the Korean electronics giant gave media a hands-on preview of its Galaxy Fold ahead of the release in the US on April 26.
The first impressions seemed to be that a folding screen in some circumstances might be a useful innovation, but the $2,000 price tag might put some people off. The Galaxy Fold is set for release in the U.S. on April 26, priced at $1,980. It goes on sale in some European markets on May 3.
But if Samsung wants to crack the Middle East market, the firm could not have done much better than giving a device to the Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum for review.
The self-professed Apple user was given a Fold to test, and he took to his Instagram channel to share his thoughts.
Sheikh Hamdan shared three images in his Stories with his 7.8 million followers, offering a peek at the Fold, and the tech-savvy royal thanked Samsung for giving him a chance to test it early.
The crown prince is no stranger to technology, often sharing his adventures through GoPro footage as well as being one of the first to show off the iPhone X in 2017.