Samsung imagines the future of handheld gaming, and it's a big step up from Nintendo Switch 2

Handhelds have become a massive thing in the world of gaming of late. Not only has the Nintendo Switch broken all manner of records, with the Switch 2 to follow this year, the likes of the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go have set the standard for portable PC play.

Then there's a huge market for retro handhelds too, with Ayaneo, Anbernic, AYN and Retroid leading the way with interesting and innovative new ways to play the classics (I've pre-ordered the AYN Odin 2 Portal myself).

That's a whole lot of travel-friendly shenanigans right there.

However, it looks like we can still be surprised with new devices in the future. Samsung, for example, publicly demonstrated its Flex Gaming concept during MWC in Barcelona this week, and if it does come to fruition one day, we could be seeing another form factor join the fray.

Using its own foldable OLED technology, the Flex Gaming device is just Samsung's proof of concept for now, but I like the way it has cleverly incorporated a display similar to that found on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 with an innovative method of storing the thumbsticks when closed.

And while it looks like the D-Pad and buttons are missing, just look at the circles under and over the sticks on either side – they seemingly double as direction and action buttons too.

Sadly, Samsung itself isn't currently expecting to make a finished device itself. T3 was told on its stand that the Flex Gaming concept was to demo a form factor that other manufacturers could make with its display technology,

Still, there are plenty of makers out there – I've mentioned a few above – that will likely be interested. So we might just see a foldable Switch 2-rival in the future.

Let's hope so.