The arrival of foldable displays has opened Pandora's box, in a manner of speaking, for manufacturers. It’s like a clean slate that offers immense room for innovation in terms of how smartphones may look and function. This is probably why we’ve seen brands testing foldable laptops, phones with inward folding display and outwards folding display, clamshell foldable, rollable and even the ones with a trifold.
Samsung, which has been an early adopter of this technology and aims to make foldable phones its mainstay, seems to be working on innovative designs. The South Korean company seems to have patented yet another design of a foldable phone that may leave any tech enthusiast excited with happiness.
The keen-eyed folks at LetsGoDigital were the first ones to spot this patent and, as usual, have come up with a detailed render based on the patent document to give us a fair idea about this new design from Samsung.
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Galaxy Z Fold but with a twist
This patent was filed in 2019 with the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office) and has recently been approved. It shows that Samsung wants to make a large, screened phone that when unfolded may remind you of the Galaxy Z Fold. However, this is where the similarity ends.
Unlike the Z Fold, this new device is expected to fold horizontally leaving you with a slightly broader device with a large secondary display at the front. To recall, the Z Fold collapses vertically leaving you with a phone with a thin and tall secondary display.
Talking about the secondary display, the designs suggest that Samsung wants to put a large squarish display up top, which might feel like a compact flagship, though with massive bezels on two sides.
This design seems to be targeted at people who’re looking for a business device or a phone that can double up as a laptop while on the go. In terms of selfie camera placement, the design suggests that it might be placed under a notch, however, if the phone ever sees the light of the day, Samsung might opt for an under-display camera setup.
As for the rear camera setup, we might see a vertically aligned triple-camera setup similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 3. Though the design does not reveal much about the buttons and ports.
That said, it is just a patent and like it goes for any patent – there is no guarantee that the brand may manufacture and launch the phone. Hence people who like this design have no option but to wait for an official announcement from the South Korean company.
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