It's definitely a far cry from some other
foldable devices from the past, like the clunky Sony Tablet P.
Could
a foldable device from Microsoft tempt you into replacing your full time PC?
Not exact matches
The much respected Samsung Galaxy tracking site Galaxyclub.nl in The Netherlands did some proper journalistic digging this week and came up with several examples of interfaces
from the patents for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy X, one of Samsung's first
foldable mobile
devices.
Since then, the first real leak or rumor
from a official document in public that could possibly be pinned to Samsung as evidence of a
foldable Samsung tablet coming sometime soon, was the Samsung Galaxy X trademark back in February, which certainly included a
foldable mobile
device category based on the official definitions of products for the Samsung Galaxy X when filing for the trademark.
Earlier this week, the Dutch firm Polymer Vision, which was spun off
from Philips Electronics last year, said that within the coming months it will begin producing its first
device: a
foldable electronic reader dubbed Readius.
Yet another
foldable device patent appears online
from Microsoft, giving us a refreshed look at what Microsoft might be cooking up internally.
A report stemming
from The Verge indicates Samsung aims to bring
foldable devices to the consumer market by 2019.
Late last month the US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent
from Samsung titled «
Foldable Electronic
Device and Method of Managing Visible Regions Thereof.»
A few of those features include support for iPhone X-style notches that are becoming popular with Android
devices, the prevention of idle background apps
from recording via microphone and support of
foldable displays.
Bloomberg's report
from 2016 claimed that Samsung was working on two types of
foldable devices: one that folds inwards like a clamshell phone, and another that folds out to turn into a 7 - inch tablet.
To expect a
foldable phone
from Apple in 2020 when not a single commercial
device has featured one yet isn't just bold, it's borderline foolish.
Since the company sources OLED displays for its smartphones
from its display - making subsidiary, that part of the company has to start producing
foldable OLED panels before the mobile division can put a
device together and launch it.
Samsung is preparing its
foldable smartphones for partners, who will get to see the
device this year and determine whether it has market appeal, according to a new report
from Korea's ET News.
Foldable displays are likely far
from becoming a common
device trait anytime soon, but truly flexible displays are already here in the sense that companies are already working on them and trying to integrate them with
devices, and with Samsung's Galaxy X on the way you can bet other major brands are working on something too.