Will
consumers flip for a foldable phone? She pushed down hard on the
rectangular phone and, like a slap bracelet, it cinched around her
wrist. The audience gasped; the internet went wild. This articulated
wraparound phone -- …
She
pushed down hard on the rectangular phone and, like a slap bracelet, it
cinched around her wrist. The audience gasped; the internet went wild.
This articulated wraparound phone -- known as the CPlus -- was a concept device Lenovo used to wow the crowd as part of a larger launch last June that included the modular Moto Z and Phab 2 Pro (the
first phone using Google’s Tango software for augmented reality). The
CPlus may have only been a prototype, but it might as well have been a
fireworks show for the imagination it ignited about the future of truly flexible phones that can bend and even fold.
As
powerful as today’s phones are, their rectangular reliability has
become a boring necessity that we hardly see at all. And that’s why
handsets that bend, twist, snap and fold will electrify and energize the
industry, even if these newfangled future devices limp and lag at
first.
Why would we want a bendable or foldable phone?
Flexing, folding handsets are visually and intellectually cool because rigid electronic pieces usually don’t bend, at least not without a hinge. But is there an actual use for them beyond pushing the boundaries of what designers and scientists can do?
Actually,
there are a few. Folding a device gives you a smaller, more portable
package to carry around -- it can essentially double the size of your
screen.
In addition, devices like these “will be able to be
produced like newsprint,” said Roel Vertegaal, who directs the Human
Media Lab at Canada’s Queens University and works on prototype models. Producing some phone parts this way could eventually make the phones cheaper to build, he added.
WhammyPhone: Bending Sound with a Flexible Smartphone by
Human Media Lab on
YouTubeShapely devices that give you more of a shifting 3D
work surface (rather than a constantly flat screen) also have the power
to change how people carry and even use them, like navigating in new
ways while playing a game, or using the way you bend a device to trigger
an action, like during gameplay or for creating sound (see video above).
Few, far between and potentially flawed
Lenovo’s
pill-bug phone isn’t the only one to stretch the boundaries of flexible
devices. In fact, twistable phone prototypes are something we were
seeing as far back as 2011. Samsung will reportedly release a phone that folds open into a tablet later in 2017, which would take the curved-screen (but static) Edge handsets to the next level, and LG Electronics is rumored to be supplying Apple, Google and Microsoft with flexible phone displays in 2018.
Lenovo, too, is working on a tablet prototype that folds down to make a
smaller overall package. The company briefly flashed it to journalists
at the same time it showed off the wraparound CPlus.
But while
research on flexible and foldable phones is heating up in corporate and
private labs, don’t expect to see them everywhere at once. Companies
tend to go slowly and cautiously with radical new designs.
Nobody remembers Samsung’s Galaxy Round, but it made the S7 Edge possible.
Josh Miller/CNET
Take Samsung’s first curved-screen phone, for example. The Galaxy Round was
essentially a concept phone that never left South Korea, but its design
morphed through several iterations to arrive at today’s S7 Edge with its two curving sides. Xiaomi’s nearly bezel-less Mi Mix is
also another concept device whose technology will show up in other
handsets down the line. It’s likely that the first of these futuristic,
flexible phones will:
Cost a lot to make (and be therefore expensive to buy)
Sell in small numbers
Sell in one or two test markets to see how early buyers react
There’s
also wear and tear to consider on phones you repeatedly fold and bend.
“[I] don’t see why I’d like my phone to bend and in fact, have put it in
an OtterBox to protect it from the daily abuse it has to endure,” said
Chris Schmandt, who directs the Living Mobile Group at MIT’s Media Lab.
It’s
possible, too, that a new, more flexible design could affect the kind
of hardware you can put into a device, say, a smaller battery than you
can stick in a large, flat rectangle. It’s also likely that rigid parts,
like circuit boards, will have to use a different internal
configuration, or be made to slightly bend as well.
The drive to get there first
So
if bendable and flexible phones aren’t guaranteed to be a smash hit,
why would companies pour cash into R&D for phones that may not go
mainstream for years, or even ever? The truth is, we can’t always
accurately predict which trends will catch on and which will go thud.
But
there is a certain glory in innovating first, and there’s a distinct
market advantage for companies that have the most experience if and when
flexible and bendable gadgets take off.
(Samsung in particular might benefit here if it’s first to release its foldable electronics.
“Samsung will likely take the ‘disruptive’ road back to the market,”
said Wayne Lam, an analyst with IHS Markit, “And hopefully put the Note 7 fiasco behind them.”)
LG’s G Flex 2 actually flexed when you pressed it down, but LG seems to have discontinued the line.
Josh P. Miller/CNET
What
excites me most, though, is that this type of innovation helps phone
makers everywhere build on past discoveries to propel new ones. It is,
after all, only through trial and error that the industry collectively
figures out what works and what doesn’t. It’s the kind of development
that will give us the next tech we can’t live without, the same way that
the passion to miniaturize a desktop computer brought about the
smartphone tucked into your pocket right now. This article originally appeared on CNET.com.
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