Samsung is capturing a new foldable phone design that shares similarities with the Galaxy Z Flip but is also foldable at the same time.
After years of development, the Samsung Galaxy Fold was introduced in early 2019, the first foldable smartphone from the Korean manufacturer.
The second folding phone, the Galaxy Z Flip, has a completely different form factor. Over time, Samsung has had numerous foldable phone designs recorded. For example, in the middle of last year, LetsGoDigital reported on a Samsung Galaxy foldable phone with a double folding line, in which the device could be folded in the form of a Z.
This time Samsung has again patented a display device that can be folded twice. Also with this phone model, one screen part can be folded forward and the other backward. However, there is a clear difference, because the new model is only half the size when unfolded.
You do not expand this smartphone into a tablet, but into an elongated device. It is a so-called clamshell model, or a flip phone - similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip and the Motorola RAZR.
Samsung foldable smartphone can fold 2 sidesThe design was requested by Samsung Display at the USPTO (the United States Patent and Trademark Office) and the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office).
The design patent including 8 product photos was published on May 26, 2020. The top screen part can be folded forward, while the bottom part can be folded back.
Strikingly enough, you don't seem to be able to bend this device completely flat. The fold line runs freely. Technically, this will undoubtedly be easier to achieve.
The images show that it is also possible to fold only one part, for example, the top part, after which you can still use the remaining display surface. The brief documentation also cites an earlier publication by PhoneArena, which discusses a foldable Samsung phone discovered by LetsGoDigital that can fold in two directions.
The patent illustrations do not show buttons, connectors, or cameras. This is probably due to the patent being filed by Samsung Display and not by Samsung Electronics. The display division will first have to develop the screen, after which Samsung Electronics will further design the device. It is quite possible that this design now belongs to the Electronics division, especially because the patent was already applied for in April 2018 (so it took 1.5 years before the patent was approved and published).
As for the camera, Samsung has equipped the Z Flip with a punch-hole camera. This is the first foldable smartphone with a hole in the flexible screen for the front camera.
Perhaps the patented design is equipped with the same type of selfie camera. If it takes a long time before Samsung wants to market this design, it is of course also possible that the camera will disappear completely under the screen.
Another possibility is that Samsung only chooses to install a camera on the back. Since you can bend the top forward, this would point the camera system forward, so you have both a camera and a screen - so you could also take selfies with the main camera.
It is clear that Samsung tests all kinds of different designs, to then come to the ultimate device in terms of user experience. It, therefore, seems likely that we will encounter foldable smartphones with a double folding line over time. This way you can fold the device even more compactly and you have an extra-large screen surface when unfolded.
Whether and when Samsung wants to release the patented folding phone remains unknown for the time being. The Korean manufacturer is expected to release a new foldable smartphone in the second half of 2020. This is likely to be the successor to the Galaxy Fold, which has a broadly similar design. This may even become a waterproof foldable phone.
View the
patent of the foldable
Samsung Galaxy smartphone here.
source
