Samsung's long-rumored foldable smartphone might be announced in 2017, and it looks like a flip-phone

Dutch tech site galaxyclub.nl discovered a patent application filed to the Korean patent office by Samsung, and it appears to show renders of Samsung's long-rumored foldable smartphone, or "Project Valley."

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samsung foldable smartphone patent
Korean Patent Office

Korean news site The Korea Herald also reported on Wednesday that Samsung will release a foldable smartphone in 2017, which lines up nicely with the discovery of the patent. Check out what we could gather from the images submitted with the patent:

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From the patent, it appears that Samsung is exploring a flip-phone "clamshell-style" design for a foldable smartphone

samsung foldable smartphone patent
Korean Patent Office

Which lines up with previous leaks and rumors, like the screenshots below.

project valley samsung foldable
VentureBeat
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The patent shows a device with hinges on the edges and back of the phone that looks similar to the on Microsoft's Surface Book laptops.

samsung foldable smartphone
Korean Patent Office

Instead of two screens for each section of the phone, there would be a single, bendable panel.

samsung foldable smartphone patent
Korean Patent Office
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And it appears you can move the hinge up and down the phone so you can fold/bend the device in different places, but it isn't clear how the hinge would move.

samsung foldable phone patent
Korean Patent Office

As interesting as it seems, Samsung's foldable smartphone hasn't been announced yet, and like many patented ideas, it could merely be an experiment that will never see the light of day.

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