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At its developer conference in San Francisco, Samsung reported this computer-generated rendering of its folding-screen phone design. (Samsung)
Flip phone, we hardly knew ye.
Samsung Electronics on Wednesday offered a new look at a 7.3-inch screen inside. Pocket-size flip phone, share tablet, it's the most interesting idea I've seen in smartphone design for years.
You have to see it! We think of a smartphone screen as a rigid piece of glass that's limited by the size of the device itself. Aim Samsung's so-called Infinity Display Flex folds, unfolds and refolds to pack up into a smaller form.
This origami screen is bound for a big phone launch, but Samsung did not offer a name, price or even a timeline other than 2019. The Korean electronics giant showed the new display technology at its annual San Francisco developer conference in the hopes of wooing app makers to create experiences that take advantage of it.
In an interview, the CEO of Samsung's mobile division DJ Koh told me the phone is no gimmick. "In terms of productivity, always a bigger screen is better," he said. "If we made a bigger picture than the Note, then it would become a tablet. So why do not we think about folding? We started this simple idea three or four years ago. "
Folded up, the device has a screen on its front. When opened, the interior screen lays flat – with a little bit of a crease – to show a widescreen version of whatever has been previously running on the front.
How'd they make the screen fold flat? Koh said Samsung has had bendable OLED screens for years, but they have been fixed behind glass. The folding screen is a different kind of transparent composite material that can be used with 300,000 times. We'll have to see you in real-world use.
It's about time for something new in phones. Samsung helped create the big-phone trend Apple's iPhone XS Max. But across the industry, smartphone designs have been more about incremental improvements than newer ones – and consumers, unsurprisingly, have waited longer and longer to upgrade.
Chinese telecom giant Huawei has also been working on a computer that could replace a computer.
What will we do with that big screen? Koh has a few ideas – such as play games, watch video and multitask "We can not make it happen on our own," he said.
Samsung also sought help from Google, whose Android software powers the phone and will need to be tweaked to take advantage of it. "There's lots of challenges we need to overcome together," said Koh.
The collaborative approach also makes Samsung different from Apple, which usually keeps unfinished new technologies under wraps. "It's a blank canvas for us," said Justin Denison, a senior vice president for Samsung Electronics America.
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