According to Korean tech outlet ET News, Samsung's next foldable smartphone won't look much like the delayed Galaxy Fold at all. In fact, it's in many ways going to be quite the opposite - particularly in the way it folds.

ET News claims the "next-generation" folding device will still keep the screen on the inside, but will take the shape of a classic clamshell style flip phone — you know, the kind you were using in 2005. A large, long 6.7" display will appear when the device is unfolded along its X-axis (the Galaxy Fold unfolds along the Y-axis), similar in concept to Motorola's upcoming RAZR foldable. I've attached a video below to give you a sense of what that design looks like, in concept via a fan-made render.

Samsung's version, though, will allegedly have a much smaller display on the outer clamshell - only an inch, if ET News is to be believed. That's big enough for displaying short text messages, the time, and notification icons, but not much else. Motorola, on the other hand, is anticipated to use a larger secondary display on the as-yet-unannounced RAZR.

Samsung is no stranger to modern clamshell smartphones, so long as you mean ones that don't have flexible displays. The company has a history of releasing extremely expensive, executive-targeted Android flip phones for the Korean and Chinese markets. The most recent such phone was the W2019, announced last November — and it costs an eye-watering $2700. I doubt even this rumored folding phone will be that pricey.

It's not been a smooth start to foldables for Samsung, after a fairly catastrophic launch for the Galaxy Fold back in April due to design defects that led to foreign material ingress into the fragile foldable OLED panel, causing the phone's screen to fail altogether. While the Galaxy Fold is expected to eventually launch, this new clamshell device is still probably a long ways out. ET News estimates that, based on supply chain production timelines, the next-generation foldable Samsung smartphone should launch in the first half of 2020.

Source: ET News