LG is joining the ranks of phone manufacturers working on foldable screen technology for a future device.
Samsung, Huawei and Motorola are all rumored to be working on foldable screen tech for phones, and a new patent suggests LG is hard at work on a new phone form factor as well.
Filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2017 – and spotted by LetsGoDigital – the patent shows a device that uses a four-link hinge to be able to bend horizontally halfway down the length of the phone. It’ll fold up quite like a book.
There will be a camera on the rear of the device – in a similar way to a flip phone – so you don’t have to open it all the way up to be able to take a photo.
Another foldable phone
The display itself is bezel-less in the images, but how close LG will be able to get the final device to that look will depend on the technology being used. The screen will only work when the phone is open, so you won’t be using any battery when it’s closed.
Other design elements include dual antennas, two microphones and dual loudspeakers, but the patent doesn’t offer any insight to how this will be done.
Whether this phone will ever see the light of day remains to be seen. This may just be a patent to experiment with the tech, but considering there’s competition from other manufacturers it may mean we see LG complete the device.
LG has previously released a bendable phone in the form of the LG G Flex and G Flex 2, but it didn’t see fit to continue using the technology for future releases.
The latest rumor suggests Samsung’s Galaxy X foldable device will be ready to launch early next year – perhaps even in January – so it’s unlikely LG will be able to get a foldable device to market before then.
Source: techradar.com
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