The Samsung Galaxy Book Fold 17 may be Samsung's 17 inch folding laptop

Samsung has been working for some time on so-called horseshoe laptops, a standardized 17-inch design with folding screens which were meant to run Windows 10X.

Microsoft’s plans of course changed, with the cancellation of Windows 10X and Microsoft moving forward to Windows 11.

Now it may appear that Samsung’s project is still alive, with reliable leaker Ice Universe posting that Samsung is working on the Samsung Galaxy Book Fold 17, a 17 inch folding laptop.

BREAKING? pic.twitter.com/MTwRZIXmSG

— ICE UNIVERSE (@UniverseIce) August 31, 2021

Intel’s “Horseshoe Bend” concept sees a 17-inch folding tablet fold into a 13 inch laptop, with the bottom screen turning into a keyboard. Samsung Display would provide the folding screens, Intel the processor and Microsoft the OS adapted for the form factor.

The Horseshoe Bend Project is open, and “17-inch panels will be supplied as standardized products to Lenovo, Dell, and HP” said a representative from the industry who is familiar with the Horseshoe Bend Project. “Foldable panel is expected to go into mass-production at the end of 2021.”

While the screen, processor and OS will be standardized, the other elements of the laptops will be open for OEMs to innovate on.

The laptops were expected to launch in 2022, but given the demise of Windows 10X the launch date of these futuristic devices are no longer clear, according to DisplaySearch’s Ross Young.

It has been in Samsung's roadmap for some time as a 2022 launch. But, lack of optimized operating system from Microsoft is expected to delay it.

— Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) August 31, 2021

Of course, a bit like the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold, Samsung may simply decide to launch the product with Windows 11, given that all the hardware R&D has been done already.

Would our readers buy an “unoptimised” folding laptop running Windows 11? Let us know below.