The best version of the Galaxy Fold is launching soon, but not for you

Samsung reportedly teased the W20 5G device earlier this year, showing what appeared to be a foldable design and not much more. We weren’t sure whether this was an all-new Samsung device with a foldable display or an entry in its overpriced China-only clamshell smartphone series.

It now seems like we finally have an answer, as a Samsung W2020 5G device has hit China’s TENAA regulatory website this week. The listed model name suggests it’s the Samsung W20 5G, and images (seen in the featured spot above) show that it could simply be a rebranded Galaxy Fold.

We’ve got the same Galaxy Fold design here, showing a traditional candybar shape when folded and folding out to reveal a tablet-sized display. You can also make out a similar rear triple camera setup and hinge design as Samsung’s first foldable phone. The only real difference here is the presence of a Chinese-language logo at the bottom rear of the device. Even the listed dimensions are a match for the Galaxy Fold.

The TENAA specs confirm 5G support, the 7.3-inch tablet screen (2,152 x 1,536), a 4.6-inch smartphone display (1,680 x 720), and a 4,135mAh battery. The Samsung W20 5G listing notes that we’ve got six cameras in total, but lists a 12MP/12MP/16MP rear camera trio, and a 10MP and 8MP selfie pairing.

A new chipset in tow?

One rather interesting detail listed in the TENAA filing is that it packs an octa-core processor clocked at 2.956Ghz. The Exynos 9825 tops out at 2.7Ghz or thereabouts, while the Snapdragon 855 processor hits a peak speed of 2.84Ghz. This suggests that the Samsung W20 5G could be using a Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset instead, which hits 2.96Ghz. The upgraded chipset would make the phone slightly more powerful than the Galaxy Fold and 5G variant.

The Snapdragon 855 Plus is only a mild upgrade over the vanilla processor, but it should result in even smoother system/gaming performance. This is due to the faster heavy CPU core, as well as a 15% boost to GPU performance.

Other specs revealed by the telecommunications body include 12GB of RAM, Android Pie, 512GB of storage, and no headphone jack.

Samsung’s previous clamshell phones in China were called the W2017, W2018, and most recently the W2019. All these phones launched at the tail-end of the previous year (i.e. the W2019 actually launched in 2018). So when you take the W2020 model name into account, it seems like Samsung might just be replacing its clamshell phone series with a true foldable device instead. Hopefully Samsung’s W2021 brings the clamshell design back and is actually a variant of the concept it showed off at its developer conference last month.