Samsung 'reveals' what looks like a tablet that folds into a phone, but otherwise we're quite literally left in the dark New products are traditionally developed in darkness – but rarely launched in darkness too. Samsung yesterday turned the auditorium lights way down before "revealing" its first Foldable Thing. This Foldable Thing was brandished in a Samsung executive's hand – some distance from spectators. And you couldn't get any nearer. That …
How would a folding monitor save space on your desk? The base is the same size either way, and that's what takes up space.
As for transport, yeah its easier but what percentage of people do you think move their desktop monitor more than once a year? This is far too much of a niche market for anyone to ever bother addressing - and if they did the price would be so high due to tiny volumes you probably wouldn't want to buy it anyway.
I think that's harsh. There are lots of very neat uses, the reason we haven't had them is it's really difficult to build not that they can't think what to use it in. In fact they've had years to plan uses while the tech is proved (a mate was working in this field out of uni, 15+ years ago).
Tablets are way better than phones for a lot of things, but they can't replace phones and you don't really want to carry a tablet 24/7, let alone a tablet AND a phone. The trend in ever-bigger phones/phablets shows there is a desire for a convenient, large-screen device.
A phone that can actually fold out into a tablet, without weighing a ton, would be great. I can't really see how they solve the battery or weight problem though even if the screen is market-ready.
A proper folding phone might sell by the boatload. It would have to be a trifold device so it unfolds to 16:9 and is MUCH larger than what you could get with a non-folding phone, weigh less than 8 ounces, and be no more than 1/2" thick when folded up.
IMHO, of course, but I don't see a device that unfolds to a roughly 4:3 like this one, and is only 7.3" at that, being much of a success. Most people would want a bigger screen for watching videos or gaming, and both need 16:9. They also want something MUCH bigger, getting something only a little bigger than what you can get now if you buy one of the larger phones isn't worth the higher price, greater likelihood of problems, heavier weight, reduced battery life, etc. etc.
IMHO, of course, but I don't see a device that unfolds to a roughly 4:3 like this one, and is only 7.3" at that, being much of a success.
Why are you so hung up on the specs of the demo device? It was so obviously a protoype but there are presumably multiple different designs currently being tested. We'll probably know more in a couple of months but until then we should assume that, at least some of the people in Samsung are thinking about the right form factors for their target markets. Personally, I think that A6 -> A5 would be a good place to start but we'll all just have to wait and see.
I remember seeing some sci-fi show where they had devices that rolled rather than folded. So they pulled the device out of a tube.
I wonder if that would be less stressful on the screen than a fixed hinge.
I think the magic in the show was that the 'rolled screen' went rigid when it was extended.
But this is interesting, it would be one of the first really novel innovations in mobile tech for a while.
Earth Final Conflict.
As an aside.
There was a Philips subsidiary that developed a "roll up" eInk based screen. Philips sold it and only does lamps + health now (like 1926). The TVs & audio are two companies renting badges,
Philips Semi -> NXP, sadly about to be devoured by Qualcom.
Unfortunately Amazon bought the Philips subsidiary or the eInk tech, though they don't use it. They buy the actual eink brand (Vizaplex, Pearl, Carta) etc for Kindle.
Sony also had a demo of roll up display, possibly eInk.
Really only OLED or eink with amorphous transistors on a plastic substrate with plastic layers will work. Lifetime may be low. Worrying that newer eReader eInk displays may already be plastic substrate. Yes, less likely to be cracked, but what is life?
These people need stopped: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Amazon
The ability to fold the Samsung device into a smaller form will make it take up less space in the trash bin where I chuck all the other Androids that won't allow me to uninstall Facebook and other bloat.
And how come there are no permission controls for these apps?
Much needed permission controls came out back in 2015 with Marshmallow*, why the regression of privacy controls?
* there was some decent control of permissions released long before Marshmallow with "Appops" but Google quickly removed it
Why? Why?
I Will tell you WHY!!!
I am dyslexic. You know what has killed my ability to read on the internet?
10 years of Geocities/GoDaddy flickering flashing dancing text? Nope.
10 years of people not knowing how to use HTML? Nope.
It was the 5 years of the "design" brigade making every website iPhone portrait only compatible. So
Now
I have
to read
two words
that fit
on the
page at
once!
Bring back landscape and 4:3 any day!
> Given that the current vibe is firmly in the 2:1 aka "letterbox" arena, why should anyone want to fold it out square?
The 2:1 vibe is just a function of phone width being a limiting factor. This is why tablets aren't 2:1 and neither are most monitors (unless they've been specifically chosen for gaming or watching cinema aspect ratios.)
@dyslexic AC. Seems to me that a landscape 10" foldout would be just what you need, even if 2:1. Meanwhile, get a Planet Gemini. It has a 6" 2:1 landscape screen and will automatically adjust to your orientation. It's not an iPhone so that shit won't override it. It has a foldout keyboard, netbook-style, for which YMMV. Or, if you need slicker phone functionality, sign up for Planet's Cosmo Communicator due next Spring, which also has an external screen so you can use it more naturally as a phone while closed. Cheaper than the new iPhones, too!
.
I bought a phone-sized projector containing WiFi, Bluetooth and an Android OS and was very impressed - pretty cheap as well. It's perfect for occasions when you need to look at a reasonable size image on a very portable device. The LED projection is bright enough to see in shaded daylight up to about A3 size, and in a dark room will project very watchable movies on a wall or screen several metres in size. Battery charge lasts over 2 hours of continuous projector use.
So my idea would be a phone with a normal size display, but with a projector lens on the edge for when you need to see some reasonable detail or display something to a group of people.
There have been phones with projectors in the past but really the projector is better as a discrete gadget. Of those who would find a projector occasionally useful, only a small fraction would need it so often that they'd want it integrated into their phone. It'd be far more useful to connect to it by cable or WiFi when required - if only so that you can use the phone to line up content without knocking the projector out if alignment with whatever you've pointed it at.
...even some of them behave like iSheep. Although I also suspect some do it for views. With one tech YouTube channel with the headline "Samsung's foldable phone is here" Erm no it's not. Keeping you really far aware and not letting you near it should really set off alarm bells. Why do companies even do that as it makes it obvious you're misleading everyone, magic leap comes to mind.
I guess one arguement is Samsung can now show they had it on display first. If Apple releases one and then attempts to sue Samsung for "folding" an object.
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