The flip phone is back, as Samsung launches the W789 Hennessy in China

By Andy Boxall Updated August 14, 2013

samsung w789 hennessy announced

A few weeks ago, a Samsung flip phone running Android appeared in a leaked picture, leading to rumors the phone would be named the Galaxy Folder, and it was to be officially announced soon. However, the device shown was the Samsung W2013, a phone already on sale in China. Despite this, the rumors weren’t completely false, as Samsung has now announced a brand new Android flip phone, the SCH-W789 Hennessy.

In the pictures, it looks very similar to the W2013, but its specification is actually lower than Jackie Chan’s phone. It has two screens, one inside the flip and the other on the outside, both of which measure 3.3-inches and have a 320 x 480 pixel resolution. Inside is a quad-core 1.2Ghz processor and 1GB of RAM, which power the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system, complete with the TouchWiz user interface over the top.

Other features include GPS, Wi-Fi, a microSD card slot, a 1500mAh battery, and a 5-megapixel camera on the back. It’s a heavy beast at a whopping 208 grams, which is more than the Nokia Lumia 920 and even the Vertu TI, and measures a little over 18mm thick, more than two iPhone 5’s put together.

Sadly for those who disagreed when I called the Galaxy Folder an anachronism, attractive only to hipsters who couldn’t let go of the past, unless you’re in China you won’t be sporting the W789 Hennessy in the near future. It’s designed, as many Chinese smartphones are, to run on either GSM or CDMA networks though, making it compatible with China’s major networks.

There’s no confirmed release date or price for the Hennessy, and no hints the phone will see an international release in the future. Oh, what a shame.

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Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…

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