Samsung Testing Folding-Screen Smartphone

Samsung is reportedly in the testing phase of a new folding smartphone code-named "Project Valley."

According to PC Mag, citing Chinese microblogging site Weibo, the device will have two different configurations: one with a Snapdragon 620 and another with a Snapdragon 820 processor. Both configurations have 3GB of RAM and a micro-SD slot.

What differentiates Project Valley from a no-longer-fashionable flip phone is that instead of two, distinct halves, the phone could be sporting Samsung's flexible screen tech, something it showed off in a 2014 video.

Granted, the devices shown in the video were just prototypes, and non-working ones at that, but the concepts shown are not too far off. Samsung first showed off its flexible displays at CES in 2013, and the Galaxy Round released that year was the first phone to have a flexible display screen. However, the screen was set into place within the phone.

A patent filed by Samsung in June shows a device that looks almost like a first-generation Nintendo DS, but the screen looks to cover the entirety of the interior real-estate, rather than contain one screen per half.

Samsung's smartphones already feature into its VR plans, with the Gear VR headset working directly with select Galaxy phones. In fact, the developer of EVE Online is making a game specifically for Gear VR. It would be interesting to see how a flexible-screen phone would positively impact Samsung's virtual reality technology.