Samsung Galaxy Fold CNBC

The smartphone industry has a two-part plan to tackle a global slowdown in sales: sell a pricey new type of mobile device that is able to transform into a tablet, and promote phones that can support super high-speed mobile internet standard 5G. But those flashy new features may not be enough to sway people to trade in their old phones immediately, as long as they're in good condition. Samsung, the world's largest smartphone maker by shipment volume, earlier this year introduced the Galaxy Fold — a nearly $2,000 foldable smartphone that ran into early issues, which delayed its commercial release. Chinese phone maker Huawei, for its part, also announced a foldable phone that will cost around $2,600.

CNBC's "Beyond The Valley" caught up with people on the streets of London, Singapore and Guangzhou, China to ask what they thought of foldable smartphones and the responses were not positive: "It looks very strange," according to a smartphone user in Guangzhou. "It's super bulky," said a user in Singapore.