Samsung Galaxy X Concept
Disclaimer : This is a very short personal project that does not reflect ideas or real concepts from Samsung
Every phone Samsung has released over the past six years has been a small step towards a new paradigm in phone design. Year after year, at Mobile World Congress, Samsung has shown off new and improved flexible displays. The original patent shows how a potential device could be designed with hyper-elastic materials under the glass and multiple AMOLED panels. This is interesting, but is not a “true” flexible phone. It merely folds in half.
Trade Show Excitement
Every year since 2012 Samsung has come out with another tech demo at MWC or CES to show off how far they’ve taken the flexible concept displays in the past year. The concepts have never been realistic and are never actually usable. They are always tech demos handled by Samsung representatives.
Patent Discovery
While stumbling through the internet at night as one is wont to do, I found myself staring at a grotesque idea. What if the phone had muscle-like fibers that would allow the whole assembly to bend almost completely in half? At first I doubted that this could be possible, but it seems that Lenovo actually used a similar technology to create its wearable phone in 2016.
Mockup to Get Down

Now that I had realistic technology to apply to a concept I needed to quickly test what I thought was the hardest part to get right. The size of the phone. As a completely foldable concept it needed to work closed and open. For inspiration I looked to Japanese flip phones. These phones were popular in the early 2010s even though the iPhone had taken ahold of the rest of the world. Using dimensions from some inspired handsets I created a few quick foam core mock up models to carry around with me.
Refine the Size and Shape
Just quickly picking up the mockups and imagining using them for normal tasks helped me quickly pick a size I was happy with. A 3:4 aspect ratio (while closed) was too wide for my hands and felt less comfortable than typing on an iPhone 7 Plus so I moved on to the 1:2 aspect ratio that a lot of the original Japanese flip phones used. This worked while closed, but while open it felt like holding an awkward measuring stick and felt silly when held up to the face to place a call. This lead me to morph the design to be in between both sizes resulting in a phone that is similar in width to most modern large phones. 70 mm width to Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus at 77.9 mm and Samsung’s S8+ at 73.4 mm. The height of the phone is around a 30% increase to the other flagship large phones at 220 mm while open, but only 110mm while closed making the closed option similar in size to smaller device choices.
Style-ish
Looking to the Samsung Galaxy series I took cues from the shape of the body, sensor placement, and bezel distribution. I took the phone one step further and imagined it as completely free of interruption on the front of the device. It has one large curved panel without any break in surface. A few quick sketches were done before jumping into CAD.
Truly Infinite
In my concept design the idea of Infinity Display from the S8 series is taken a step further with the ability to extend any viewing experience into a truly immersive experience.
Any Which Way
The concept was thought to be able to be held in a variety of ways. Due to the curved display and housing the phone can be held folded in half, fully extended, or completely closed while fitting perfectly into your hands.
Flexible Perfection
Using Samsung’s patented Core Flex™ technology the Galaxy X blends beautiful anodized aluminum and flexible glass with a new space age material to create a bendable body that is both strong and pliable.
Neutral No More
While the Galaxy line has been trending towards a more neutral and even color palette I decided that the line needs little more kick. Without upsetting the balance I kept the traditional black version, but added a few new more shocking color options.
New Horizons
The reimagined aspect ratio allows for a more dynamic app experience. Two full landscape apps can be run side by side allowing you to interact, drag, drop, and tap your way to a productive finale.
Full Immersion Gaming
With the flexible display you have the ability to play games in super widescreen allowing for a wider field of view and on-screen controls that don’t have to sit right on top of the action.
Consistently Amazing
Whether you are using it in normal or extended mode the user experience will always be consistent adhering to Samsung’s goal of a holistic, unified design language.
Transcendent
As we push forward into the early 21st century technology will continue to amaze and delight.
2nd Disclaimer: This is a personal project that does not reflect any products or concepts from Samsung.