Samsung is no stranger to foldable screen tech, with it being the first company to really push the idea of foldable phones with its Samsung Galaxy Fold and Samsung Galaxy Flip phones. However, now the company has taken the only logical next step and demoed a new concept, showing off a gaming handheld that can do the same screen-bending trick to halve its footprint, making for an even more portable gaming device.
Samsung doesn’t currently make a device that would compete with the likes of the Steam Deck OLED and Asus ROG Ally X for a spot on our best handheld gaming PC guide. However, it has a long pedigree in producing both portable devices such as some of the best foldable phones, as well as tablets, and it makes Windows laptops too. A gaming handheld is only a small step away from much of its regular hardware output.
The new Samsung Flex Gaming foldable gaming handheld concept is being shown off by the company at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show in Barcelona, where our mobile gaming sister site PocketTactics spotted the device. Samsung provides no details about the device but images show the device sporting what appears to be a typical 7-inch size screen as found on most other handhelds, but here it buckles in the middle, allowing the whole device to bend in half.
Notably, the device isn’t shown in several different bent states, so we can’t tell just how thin the device is when it’s folded, or how flat the screen lies when opened up. However, Samsung’s foldable phones have proved impressive on both fronts, so we see no reason why a gaming handheld couldn’t work just as well.
Samsung has even thought of how the device might actually fold flat, while still maintaining protruding conventional controls such as thumbsticks. The concept has holes on the opposite side of each thumbstick that allow the sticks to poke through the device. The extension of this idea to have the D-pad buttons surround the holes looks ergonomically awful, but at least Samsung has clearly thought about this occurrence more than just slapping a hinge and a bendable screen on a handheld-shaped plastic shell.
The other downside to the design, though, is that again in order to make it thin – and thus a worthwhile endeavor to make it foldable – Samsung has seemingly omitted any hand grip bulges on the rear of the device. Instead, it appears to just have a flat tablet shape, which we suspect would not be comfortable for long gaming sessions.
Nonetheless, if Samsung can balance all these elements and come up with a device that really does have half the conventional footprint of a gaming handheld, we can see it being appealing for those that actually use their handheld while traveling.
Also demoed by Samsung at this show is a new 500Hz OLED gaming monitor, that we first heard about back in November 2024, but there’s no further word yet on when that panel is arriving.
Would you be interested in a foldable gaming handheld? Or is the likes of Lenovo Legion Go a far more sensible approach for tweaking the gaming handheld formula? Join our community Discord and you can let us know your thoughts. Plus, you can follow us on Google News for daily PC hardware news, reviews, and guides.
