Samsung plans to unveil a folding smartphone in 2018

Samsung's elusive folding smartphone could finally see the light of day in 2018. The company has stated that it aims to launch a foldable smartphone under its Galaxy Note brand by next year.

Koh Dong-jin, President of Mobile Business at Samsung Electronics, said the company is setting its eyes on 2018 to release a smartphone with a bendable display. At the moment, he believes that there are several hurdles it has to overcome, leaving room to push back the release if those problems are not solved, Bloomberg reported.

For months, specialist Samsung news websites have been talking about patents reportedly filed by the manufacturer with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), hinting at a possible design for the firm's future folding smartphone.

Such a device has supposedly been in the pipeline at Samsung for years, ever since the firm showed off its first flexible plastic screen prototypes at CES, Las Vegas (USA) in 2011. One of the leaked patents features an original hinge system for folding the smartphone in half, echoing old-school flip phones but with a large display spanning the phone's front face when open.

According to the report, Koh Dong-jin added that the company is working with auto-systems maker Harman to develop an artificial intelligence-enabled speaker that users can speak to in order to play music and conduct other tasks. However, at the moment there is no information provided whether the voice-controlled speaker would use the company’s voice assistant, Bixby.