Samsung may unveil its first foldable smartphone next year

Galaxy X will sport Samsung's traditional home button in between a back button and a menu button

Battling with multiple issues like the discontinuation of Galaxy Note 7, recall of 2.8 million exploding washing machines and a corruption scandal, South Korean giant Samsung has reportedly filed a patent with the Korean intellectual property office for a smartphone that can be folded in half and is expected to arrive next year.

"Called the Galaxy X, the front of the smartphone will sport traditional Samsung home button in between a back button on the right and a menu button on the left," said a report published on Friday at GSMArena.com.

Samsung has been working on foldable displays for years and is now ready to officially unveil its first offering in 2017.

"The aspect ratio of display of the device is close to 21:9, and considering the physical design of the device, it will be interesting to see how useful the screen will turn out to be," the report added.

Representatives of the South Korean prosecutor's office recently raided Samsung's offices in Seoul over suspicions that the tech giant might be involved in a corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye.

Hit by the Note 7 fiasco, Samsung Electronics has also decided to recall about 2.8 million top-loading washing machines due to risk of impact injuries.