Lenovo's foldable smartphone patent visualized

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,627   +198
Staff member
Through the looking glass: In the absence of an explanation from Lenovo, this seems like one of the most blatant examples yet of a foldable device lacking practicality or utility. Just because it can fold doesn't necessarily mean it should fold if it serves no purpose.

Samsung and Huawei have taken an early lead in the foldable smartphone race but the competition isn’t sitting idly on the sidelines. Motorola is reportedly working on a reimagined version of its popular Razr phone and based on a recent patent, parent company Lenovo looks to be working on something as well.

LetsGoDigital recently commissioned a graphic artist to develop 3D renders of the device.

The images are based on a design patent registered last September with the World Intellectual Property Office.

What’s depicted is a clamshell-style phone that, when folded out, doesn’t look much different than your ordinary candy bar style handset. A sizable hinge on the lower half of the phone, however, allows it to fold at different points. This means you can partially fold the phone and still use some of the main screen or fold it further to cover most of the display.

ZTE and Oppo have also been linked to similar folding phone patents in recent memory.

As always, keep in mind that this is little more than a patent at this stage. There’s no guarantee that a product resembling these renders will make it to market.

All images courtesy LetsGoDigital

Permalink to story.

 
Foldable smartphones make no sense at all.

Why would you increase the thickness of a phone?

GLASS DOESN'T FOLD - Why would you want to go backwards and make devices out of plastic?

Why not just buy a tablet?

Who's buying a $1980 or $2600 folding phone beyond a few poor investors with Credit Cards?
 
A portrait slider would make a hundred times more sense, esp. if there was a physical QWERTY keyboard and trackpad on the bottom section.
 
Foldable smartphones make no sense at all.

Why would you increase the thickness of a phone?

GLASS DOESN'T FOLD - Why would you want to go backwards and make devices out of plastic?

Why not just buy a tablet?

Who's buying a $1980 or $2600 folding phone beyond a few poor investors with Credit Cards?


It's new tech. They don''t make sense yet because the tech isn't incredible. Right now it's just the same phone tech in a larger profile. If you look up the tablet from westworld (https://vimeo.com/195399404) that is a pretty cool direction that we could be aiming. The end goal would be to potentially have a supercomputer powered device that can fold and have good screen real-estate.

We are currently a LONG way off from that, but the path has to begin somewhere. This particular design doesn't seem that great. I see the pictures in the article and wonder why they don't just commit to making a bracelet or arm band.
 
I liked the mock-ups for the Razr that were floating around a while ago. It made sense. A nice small device to put in your pocket that opened out into a normal sized phone. The rest of them look awful.
 
Back