Samsung launches 5G-enabled foldable smartphone

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its latest handset W21 5G through teaming up with the country's major telecom carrier China Telecom on Wednesday, in a bid to get a bigger slice of the world's largest smartphone market.

Powered by the superfast 5G technology, the mobile phone serves as a tablet when fully opened and becomes a phone when closed. When folded up, the phone has a 6.2-inch AMOLED display designed to fit in the palm of a hand, and when opened, it has a 7.6-inch display that's tablet-sized with a 120 hertz refresh rate.

Priced at 19,999 yuan ($3,000), the W21 5G is equipped with Snapdragon 865 chipset, and boasts 512GB internal storage and a 4,500 mAh battery. It also has two SIM card slots.

Last year, Samsung unveiled its first consumer-ready foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold.

Global foldable smartphone shipments will grow from under 1 million units in 2019 to 100 million by 2025, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics. It predicted that foldables will be the fastest-growing segment in the premium smartphone market for the next decade.

A report from market consultancy Canalys showed that Samsung shipped 53.7 million smartphones, a 30 percent drop versus the same period last year, taking up an 18.9 percent share in the global smartphone market.