Sammy patents folding phone tech

[Kazukian]

http://bgr.com/2016/11/09/samsung-foldable-smartphone-photos/

Pretty slick.

 

[Red Storm]

Personally I'm more interested in the phone-unfolds-to-tablet idea, but this is cool too.

 

[gorcorps]

Neat screen design, but it'll take some some thought to account for the battery. You'll basically need two separate batteries to keep capacity the same as modern phones, and I'm not sure how easy that will be to account for. Perhaps one of them would just be the "backup" battery, similar to using an external battery pack except this one is built in.

 

[Yakk]

Wow, a patent with actual information on how it works.

Can't wait to see it in action, I like it.

 

[gorcorps]

Just read the whole article, and one thing stood out to me as dumb:
"The back of the phone would feature an innovative type of hinge that would let you actually bend the rear case. What’s interesting about the patent is that it suggests the hinge could be moved across the length of the phone. This would let users fold the handset in a variety of ways. However, it’s unclear how a movable hinge would affect internal components, especially the battery. Other drawings suggest moving the hinge might not be possible, but you might be able to fold it at different levels."

The patent pretty clearly outlines different places they may put the hinge, but nothing about it shows it would be movable. You can see in the drawings of the hinge that it's not designed that way, so I'm not sure why the author of the article made such an odd conclusion given the patent was right in front of him.

 

[KeithP]

So, phone length gets cut in half but its thickness would more than double? I see no point to the design in the patent. Maybe as the technology develops it could turn into something useful.

-KeithP

 

[gorcorps]

Could you imagine how 3rd party cases and screen protectors would handle such a thing? They can barely cope with the fixed curved edge of the current phones.

 

[sammykhalifa]

So, phone length gets cut in half but its thickness would more than double? I see no point to the design in the patent. Maybe as the technology develops it could turn into something useful.

-KeithP

Well to be fair many current phones are way thinner than necessary. I don't know if it'll sell, but I can think of at least one point to it in that the screen would be way easier to protect while not in use.

 

[WelshBloke]

So, phone length gets cut in half but its thickness would more than double? I see no point to the design in the patent. Maybe as the technology develops it could turn into something useful.

-KeithP

I could very much go for a phone that was two thirds the height and double the thickness of an S7 when folded and twice the height and the same thickness when open.

Could you imagine how 3rd party cases and screen protectors would handle such a thing? They can barely cope with the fixed curved edge of the current phones.

Would a screen protector be as needed on a phone that's folded when you aren't using it? Seems like it would be fairly robust when folded.

 

[WelshBloke]

So, phone length gets cut in half but its thickness would more than double? I see no point to the design in the patent. Maybe as the technology develops it could turn into something useful.

-KeithP

I could very much go for a phone that was two thirds the height and double the thickness of an S7 when folded and twice the height and the same thickness when open.

Could you imagine how 3rd party cases and screen protectors would handle such a thing? They can barely cope with the fixed curved edge of the current phones.

Would a screen protector be as needed on a phone that's folded when you aren't using it? Seems like it would be fairly robust when folded.

 

[Zaap]

Just read the whole article, and one thing stood out to me as dumb:
"The back of the phone would feature an innovative type of hinge that would let you actually bend the rear case. What’s interesting about the patent is that it suggests the hinge could be moved across the length of the phone. This would let users fold the handset in a variety of ways. However, it’s unclear how a movable hinge would affect internal components, especially the battery. Other drawings suggest moving the hinge might not be possible, but you might be able to fold it at different levels."

The patent pretty clearly outlines different places they may put the hinge, but nothing about it shows it would be movable. You can see in the drawings of the hinge that it's not designed that way, so I'm not sure why the author of the article made such an odd conclusion given the patent was right in front of him.

Probably because he can either read Korean, or use Google translate. It does show (and describe) a moveable hinge- though it's a variant of the design. Figures 13-16 show the range the hinge would move- look at 16 in particular, it shows the range of possible movement. The text for those figures clearly describes a 'sliding groove' and 'sliding module' in the hinge. It doesn't say, or show "the length of the phone" though.