The Future Is Unfolding

TWO STORIES IN THE MOBILE WORLD ARE ABOVE THE FOLD (PUN, INTENDED) THIS YEAR: 5G AND FOLDABLE PHONES. 5G WAS THE “INEVITABLE NEXT STEP.” THE RETURN OF THE FLIPPING COMMUNICATORS WAS UNEXPECTED.

- Val J. Gonzales

Since last year, big companies like Samsung and Huawei have sent out a lot of feelers and press releases about the new form factors of these “foldable phones.” You might be thinking about the clamshell design that Motorola wanted to revive from their Razrs in the early 2000s, but no, the folding mechanism is way more sophisticated this time. The initial designs that were presented looked like they were taken from some future timeline. Samsung knew the complexity of this emerging technology; as such, it had repeatedly delayed the launch of its prototype product.

A FLAT SCREEN THAT FOLDS?

If you noticed the trend, smartphone designers have always tried to expand the screen sizes without increasing the size of the phone. They took out the speakers in front and put it on the bottom edge (which is weird because you need to tilt the phone in an awkward angle to hear the sound better). They also replaced the navigational buttons on the front panel with tiny on-screen sensors that made fat fingers cry. Then, except for iPhones and iPods, the short-lived front fingerprint reader was moved to the back.

The bezel is that part of the phone that isn’t a screen. The Samsung Galaxy Edge managed to remove the side bezels, too and extended the screen to wrap around the edge. The ultimate goal was to have an all-screen device facing the user.

Like curved TVs, the prototypes of foldable phones made use of a special and flexible display called OLED (Organic Light-emitting Diode). Unlike LCDs and flat-panel LEDs that are rigid, flexible OLED displays do not need a backlight to operate. That alone makes it super thin and lightweight, both ideal characteristics for handheld devices. OLED displays use organic compounds sandwiched between thin layers of bendable plastic.