The Galaxy Fold will be available soon … in limited numbers
It's no longer a secret that the global smartphone market is in dire need of breakthrough new technologies, prompting consumers to return to a one-year or at least two-year upgrade cycle for most consumers satisfied to keep their devices well longer than expected. never before. The vast majority of the world's leading providers rely on 5G cellular connectivity and foldable form factors to kick-start growth in the mobile phone sector, but unfortunately, it seems that we may have to wait for these two innovations to reach the masses.
It is becoming increasingly clear that most US smartphone users will not be able to take advantage of the actual 5G speeds on anything that looks like a large scale for at least a year, while a new Digitimes report details a major obstacle preventing the rapid proliferation of collapsible designs. dreaming of. Namely, hinges. Even more specifically, the durability and robustness of these foldable key components of the apparatus, which is not surprising, is quite difficult to obtain.
Different folding methods, even big challenge
In case you have not noticed, there is more than one way to skin a cat fold a phone. While Samsung has adopted the so-called "in-situ folding" technique, which essentially makes Galaxy Fold an innie, the Huawei Mate X looks cool, at least at first, with its "outie" design. . There is also Xiaomi, of course, who boldly plans to move to the next level with a double folding device that looked absolutely crazy and futuristic … in a first demo.
Digitimes also mentions a "Z-folding method proposed by Google", although it may be even further from commercial materialization, having recently been identified in patent documentation filed almost a year ago. But the fact is, no matter how each company chooses to strip this cat, they will all face the same big problem in the near future, according to "industry sources".
Apparently, all these radically different products require the same type of hinge, which must be "at least 10 times stronger" than those used by most conventional laptops. In addition, they have to take "much thinner and thinner" forms, also involving a complex and delicate metal injection molding process, for which suppliers simply are not equipped to move up a gear.
But given the enthusiasm generated by the foldable phones unveiled here or teased by everyone, from Samsung to Huawei, through Xiaomi, Oppo and TCL, big efforts are currently being deployed in the chain of Supply to meet "strict quality requirements" and customer demand. year.
Are folding phones ready to become widespread in 2020?
Unfortunately, this remains a question without a clear answer for a multitude of reasons. First of all, there is absolutely no guarantee that the ultra-strong and ultra-thin hinges mentioned above will increase their mass production as soon as possible. Secondly, there are other challenges to take into account and compromises to overcome. It is obviously difficult to create several other components needed to get a perfectly foldable device, starting with flexible OLED screens.
There is nothing futuristic about this fold of Mate X
Again, we generally expect prices to fall as mass production increases, which could take more than a year, but we have every reason to believe that foldable smartphones will help (eventually) the sector to recover its potential.
