Netizens have discovered a patent from the South Korean company Samsung, which describes a smartphone with two foldable displays. What unusual form factors of mobile gadgets are now in development and when the smartphone of the future will appear on the market - in the material from Gazeta.Ru.

New Form Factor From Samsung

Dutch portal LetsGoDigital has discovered a new Samsung patent titled "Electronic device incorporating a display that has multiple states and ways to control it." The patent reveals the development of a new form factor for foldable smartphones by the South Korean company. The authors of the portal gave the gadget the unofficial name Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Dual Slide.

A feature of this smartphone is the presence of two foldable displays - a small top screen and a side one, similar to the one in the Galaxy Z Fold. To open the additional display, the company suggests pressing the button and swiping up to bring up the top screen, and to bring up the right or left display, slide your finger to the side.

The authors of LetsGoDigital question the practicality of such a display, suggesting that it will flex when pressed. In addition, the hinge may eventually "loosen" to such a state that when it touches the screen, it will return to its original state.

Other Samsung Developments

In the spring of 2021, Samsung released a video of its conceptual developments, among which the Multi-folding display device stands out. Externally, the smartphone resembles the existing Galaxy Z Fold3, but with a key difference in the form of two hinges, which allows the smartphone to be folded in half. Thanks to this functionality, the smartphone was nicknamed the "accordion" on the network.

The company also showed a smartphone with an expanding display, thanks to which the screen surface is enlarged by 30%. The additional screen can be used to display system icons or for instant messengers.

Competitors are not asleep

In addition to Samsung, Oppo showed its expanding smartphone technology in the X 2021 model. In the standard state, Oppo X 2021 looks like a regular smartphone, but if you perform a gesture by swiping the power button, the body of the smartphone and its the screen becomes wider.

Expanding the display occurs by folding and unrolling the thin OLED matrix.

The Chinese company claims that such a gadget will withstand about 100 thousand display folding cycles, which should be enough for 5 years of standard or 2-3 years of intensive use.

The foldable phone race is gaining momentum as Chinese manufacturers are ready to put more pressure on Samsung, which is currently the only player in this segment on the international market. During the Oppo Inno Day on December 15, 2021, the Oppo Find N was presented, which is an analogue of the Galaxy Z Fold3, while Huawei is preparing a Pocket P50 model, an alternative to the Galaxy Z Flip3.

We must wait

In mechanical structures, the fewer hinges and bending angles, the less strength and the higher the likelihood of breakage, said Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group. He believes that such patents are the protection of his own developments, but they will not become the basis for the development of such a smartphone.

"The main format of folding devices today is a clamshell, and Samsung is doing well here," Murtazin noted.

The general director of the TelecomDaily agency Denis Kuskov believes that the determination of the best form factor will happen at the turn of 2022-2023. It will then be clear which smartphones will be released in the near future.

“Now the most popular smartphones are phablets (smartphones with a large diagonal display) and it’s hard to say which form factor will be better. But foldable smartphones have a future, given the significant growth in traffic and improved content quality, "- said Kuskov.

Manufacturers are forced to enlarge the screens of smartphones in such a way that they remain mobile. This is only possible when using non-standard form factors. For example, the folding smartphone Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 fits into a jeans pocket when folded, and when unfolded it is noticeably larger than a standard smartphone.

The only problem with folding devices is the high price and complexity of production when compared with the "classic" monoblocks. However, reputable insider Digital Chat Station notes that foldable screen gadgets will become cheaper next year.

bbabo.Net