At the Samsung Developer Conference today, Samsung announced its new Infinity folding display, the basis for an upcoming foldable smartphone that we now know will launch in 2019, news Google let slip earlier today. The device didn't have any specifications detailed, but the concept is certainly interesting.

Samsung's folding phone will actually have three screens - a large display that will unfold the phone into a small tablet, and a smaller display which sits on the outside of the phone for use in one-handed operation. Samsung calls this smaller screen the "cover display," and it definitely seems smaller than what you get on a modern, large-display smartphone. The idea is that since the "large" tablet display can only be used in the full-size mode, you'll need this secondary display for more day-to-day smartphone functions.

The disguised device in "tablet" mode - it folds out to reveal the large screen.

The demo device was inside a "black box" to disguise the actual industrial design, but that suggests this phone is getting pretty close to being done (also, the bezels won't be that large - it's deliberate obfuscation). Samsung says production of Infinity folding panels should be ready in the coming months, suggesting the phone could launch in the early part of next year.

The photo below shows the phone in its "folded" position with the secondary display active. The folding action appears to be motorized, at least on this concept phone (it's possible it's motorized only for the purpose of the black box, but we just don't know yet).

We only had a quick look at the concept, so we're going on a pretty small amount of information at this time. More as we learn it.