Huawei seeks to beat Samsung at the market with a foldable phone

Rumors of a collapsible phone have been circulating for years, but some one might eventually, perhaps publish one the next year. Samsung, long in the forefront of display technology, apparently aims to launch a flexible galaxy phone, but Huawei could try to beat it at the market. If 2018 was the year of the notch, maybe 2019 will be the year of the fold.

Technically, your phone's display may already be flexible. OLED panels are manufactured on a flexible substrate, which is why there have been so many flexible display demonstrations at trade shows for most of the decade. LG even released some G Flex phones that could bend a bit without breaking. It has been possible to make a screen flexible for years, but turning it into a foldable phone is another story. Phones with OLED panels are not flexible or collapsible because the panel is under glass.

A foldable phone could allow one-handed operation when it is folded, but you could deploy the full display when you play a game or watch a video. OLEDs can bend, but they do not accept this long-term treatment – manufacturing changes are needed before a collapsible phone makes sense. Current panels will develop wrinkles and dead spots after excessive bending. Samsung manufactures almost all OLED panels the size of a smartphone in the world, so you expect its phone to be the first to feature a sturdy foldable panel. According to the new report, Huawei will partner with Chinese supplier BOE for a new flexible OLED panel.

Demonstration of BOE's flexible OLED technology. It's the same basic demo we've seen in trade shows for years.

BOE does not have Samsung's manufacturing capability, so Huawei's ability to produce foldable phones would be extremely limited. The first series of devices could be as low as 20,000-30,000. The device would not be highly marketed, but Huawei expects first users to take the first foldable phone. This nameless smartphone would serve mainly as evidence of Huawei's industrial design direction. The company wants to show, basically.

The report sets a launch date for the collapsible Huawei phone as early as the beginning of 2019. Samsung's collapsible phone was rumored for a mid-2019 launch, and the price tag could go as high as 2 $ 000. Huawei working with another Chinese company could keep the price down, but this is also not a problem for expensive phones. The Porsche Design editions of its flagship phones can sell for $ 1,200 or more.

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