Foldable phones are here. With the release date confirmed for Samsung's first foldable phone and the first images of the Huawei Mate X already circulating online, there's no doubt that 2019 is going to be an exciting year for mobile phone and gadget enthusiasts. But which will be the best foldable phone on the market?
The first clues help draw conclusions
The leaked poster with the first image of the Huawei Mate X confirms one of the details we previously discussed after analyzing the invitation to the press event Huawei has scheduled for February 24th in Barcelona. Its foldable model will opt to place the main screen on the outer side of the device, a decision that at first glance might seem like a purely aesthetic choice, but which actually masks the need to conceal one of the main problems with foldable screens: their curvature radius.
radius of curvature
Current flexible displays have a limitation that, due to physical constraints, prevents them from being bent beyond a specific curvature. This means that the panels cannot be folded like a sheet of paper, as this would cause them to break. Therefore, a safety margin must be maintained to respect the limitations of the specific display.
This security gap is evident in the case of Samsung's Galaxy Fold and also in Royole's Flexpal. The Korean manufacturer has opted to place the screen on the inner side, so when fully folded, it leaves a gap that highlights the design limitations imposed by the use of this type of screen.
Huawei's Mate X , on the other hand, like Xiaomi's prototype , opts to leave the screen visible on the outer surface. This allows them to overcome the limitations of the curvature radius by using those dimensions to house the device's body and internal components. Thus, when the device is folded, there will be no gap, and the body will appear more compact and aesthetically superior to Samsung's.
It is quite interesting to see how Samsung has opted for the screen on the inner side, not only because of the need to use a second screen (with the costs and energy requirements that this entails), but also knowing that a couple of years ago they registered a patent with the possible solution.
The method consisted of a hidden mechanism that adapted the flexible panel to the required radius of curvature, so that when the device was closed, it would be a completely folded piece with no visible gap. Given what we've seen with the Galaxy Fold, it seems the mechanism didn't quite work out (or at least it's not commercially viable for now), so the phone will launch on April 23rd with a gap, as we can see in the official presentation video (an image that, by the way, is hard to make out due to how quickly it appears and disappears – are they trying to hide it?).
What if Samsung is avoiding another problem?
Knowing the proposals and options available to the companies, why did Samsung choose to focus on the inner surface of the device? Why not design a phone with a design similar to Huawei and Xiaomi? This leads us to consider another element that makes us question this decision. What kind of glass do these screens use for protection? Given that they need to fold, what material is it made of? And more importantly, is it scratch-resistant?
That's where Samsung might have the beginning of its reasoning. If there is currently no flexible material on the market that can protect the screen from scratches, it is best to keep it protected on the inside. Huawei, for its part, could be using a flexible material (obvious) that would have little to do with Corning's current Gorilla Glass, so your device could be quite sensitive to bumps, scratches and scratches when exposed to the outside at all times. the outside.
To this day, Corning continues to work on developing a flexible , ultra-thin glass panel to protect foldable screens, but as far as we know, the company hasn't finished its work, so there's currently no reliable solution to protect these types of displays. We'll see if this MWC helps clear up our doubts, although we'll have to start by watching Huawei's presentation to begin to understand everything.