A take on foldable tech
2019 saw a huge leap in consumer technology and 2020 looks for the continuation of it despite the pandemic. Be it 5G connectivity or some crazy megapixels count – latest I heard it was 108 megapixels. But there’s one thing that stood out. Foldable screens and devices. You may think it’s the Samsung Galaxy Fold that came first as a foldable but actually not.
The modern iteration in the late 2010s of foldable or dual screen tech appeared in 2017 by a Chinese mobile company, ZTE launched the Axon M. It was a dual screen device that could run multiple apps and even extend an app into 2 screens. It looked promising, however it just didn’t feel amazing. Quirky, sure! Not to the point that you would buy it off right away, it was clunky, ran on anold processor (Snapdragon 821), huge bezels and worst of all, Android wasn’t even ready to support it. The good of that device was something promising, it was that foldables and dual screens are going to be the future and it’s going to be awesome.
That brings us to the Galaxy Fold, it was officially launched in April 26, 2019. A true innovation in terms of what it intended to do. A small display upfront and unfolded in to a large tablet sized screen. It was remarkable in terms of the inner workings, the hardware and software working together. Also, Android finally stated it was going to support these types of foldables and dual screens back in 2018 when Samsung showed off a glimpse of the Fold. The launch was great, priced closed to $2000 it was a expensive buy and only a few willing to sink their tooth into. The result? It was sort of a disaster, the plastic screen that was used because glass cannot bend which felt like a screen protector, debris found its way in quickly and spoiled the inner display. Another PR disaster for Samsung after its notorious Note 7. One thing was clear at that moment: foldables are not ready yet. In terms of hardware at least. So Samsung took it back and a couple of months later, re-introduced the Fold with some additional protection for the plastic screen and it’s still not the best fix according to couple of reviewers but that’s old news. In the beginning of 2020, Samsung came up with something more nostalgic and they introduced the Galaxy Flip which is a great device on it’s own and a bit less expensive. There are a few contenders in the market alongside Samsung such as: Huawei, LG, Motorola and Royole. These companies have legitimate products available in the market or showed a working prototype of their foldables at the very least. They were the first ones initially until Microsoft unveiled their take on the whole foldable tech back in 2019.
Microsoft’s approach by far seems to be a better approach than any of them (except LG – I appreciate their dual screen tech). A dual screen tablet and a dual screen phone running Android. Oh and they will be launching it in holiday 2020 until some news came up about the Surface Neo rumored to be postponed till 2021. Here’s why I think this is better:
- Gives developers time to make apps work well
- Test around and determine the feasibility of it for at least a year ahead
- Accumulate the findings and perhaps refine the product a bit more to create a better experience towards the end
This is sort of a good feedback loop and in the meantime, the major issues are at least fixed. I wish more companies do this, so that your product is ready and even better by the time real consumers get their hands on it. This new approach is not exactly new but definitely a good one for the consumer tech industry.
Moving on, foldables are a new opportunity to also make a compelling operating system (OS) that won’t rely on the mobile focused or tablet focused OS and tweaking to the company’s liking to run on this form factor. This may sound odd after all, foldables are phone too right? Of course! But if the OS is more than optimized and specially made for a foldable, it also means that you have an OS dedicated to this category. This means, apps and services made for a phone can also run on the foldable but it goes a step further than your typical phone but also does not exceed beyond a tablet. An example, a tablet may get a full fledged desktop browser but a tablet form of browser shall be applicable for the foldable. So call it Android F or foldableOS (like macOS) and just keep it for the use of foldables.
To close up, I personally do not think foldables are ready yet as said earlier. Not until, big companies like Samsung and Microsoft show us promising results. Foldables are an amazing piece of tech. I don’t care who is making it but I personally will vouch for them. The whole idea of one device is all you need kinda thing is where the real deal is. Having a smartphone and tablet and being able to switch back and forth between them is simply amazing on one device. True productivity is unleashed through such devices and that’s the kind of future I am looking forward to. I really want this tech to be successful and to cost us less for purchase.
This seems like the next big thing and it will be, if companies figure it out through a couple of aspects. This ranges from software and hardware to support it fully. If all of this can be resolved and I personally will buy a foldable in the near future.
