Samsung's Galaxy Fold finally arrives in Australia next week

UPDATE: Samsung has announced that pre-orders for its Galaxy Fold smart device are now open via the Samsung Australia website. Original article continues below.

After months of delay, the highly-anticipated and exceedingly intriguing Samsung Galaxy Fold finally launched in South Korea, the US and the UK last month.

Now, it's time for Australia to gain its chance to pick up the world's first foldable smartphone/tablet hybrid, with Samsung officially setting a local release date of October 30, 2019 for the category-defining device.

Samsung also revealed that it's worked with every single operator in the country to ensure that eSIM activation will be available to all users, effectively allowing them to download a SIM profile directly to the Galaxy Fold without the need for an actual SIM card.

Before you start unfolding your wallets for the Samsung Galaxy Fold, we should warn you that it's not going to be cheap: the South Korean electronics giant has set a local RRP of AU$2,999.

Spec-tacular

While the Samsung Galaxy Fold's hefty price tag will undoubtedly give many pause for thought, it's worth noting that the device is about as premium as they come – and that's before pointing out that it's essentially a tablet and smartphone in one.

In terms of specs, it's got two AMOLED displays (a 7.3-inch unfolded main display and a 4.6-inch screen on the outside for use when the device is closed) and boasts the latest Snapdragon 855 processor alongside 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

The Galaxy Fold also sports a total of six cameras, with a 10MP selfie camera on the front of the device when closed, dual 10MP + 8MP selfie cameras when unfolded, and a triple camera setup on the device's rear that offers a 16MP ultra-wide camera, a 12MP wide-angle camera and a 12MP telephoto lens.

Additionally, each Galaxy Fold comes with a pair of Samsung's wireless Galaxy Buds in the box at no extra cost, valued at AU$249 when sold separately.

Hands on with Samsung's Galaxy Fold — The Samsung Galaxy Fold in its closed form.

If there's one premium feature that's lacking from the local Galaxy Fold, it's compatibility with 5G networks – a feature that Samsung already offers on its Galaxy S10 5G and Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G handsets.

The 5G version of the Fold is being sold in some other markets – including Europe and Korea – so its absence here is a bit perplexing. However, given how rudimentary 5G coverage is in Australia at present, its non-appearance is arguably no great loss.

That said, we fully expect 5G network compatibility to be a major selling point of the eventual Samsung Galaxy Fold 2.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold will be available in Cosmos Black and Space Silver from October 30 via the Samsung website and Australia's major telcos and electronics retailers, and you'll be able to check out demo devices in select stores across the country after this date.