Samsung was first out of the gates with the Galaxy Fold, Huawei bolted past with the Mate X and that’s just the first few meters of a long long race to define the future of smartphones and screen based technologies.
While Samsung and Huawei are certainly first to market with an actual product, they aren’t the only ones with foldable screens and hinge technology. We saw some news from TCL earlier in the week on this, and now having popped by their stand here at Mobile World Congress it’s easy to see just how long this race is going to be.
Should a phone turn into a tablet or should a tablet fold away to be more portable?
Should a phone of today’s size just fold in half to be smaller in your pocket?
These thoughts and ideas will be tested at length over the years ahead with concepts and real products that may make it or break it in the consumer world.
TCL’s display showed clearly they have the technology to bring foldable devices to market – probably next year, but also that they are thinking outside the box.
For me, this is the most interesting concept. Taking today’s phone and folding it in half. Small like a flip phone, with a smartphone screen inside.
The two halves don’t perfectly overlap because you can see some of the screen for notifications.
Really interesting stuff.
More like Samsung? Less like Huawei? Something completely new? Who knows.
Maybe we’ll just end up with tiny little phones and tablet’s that roll or fold out from almost nowhere?
