If you have recently paid attention to the mobile phone market, then you must have been swept away by the news of folding screen mobile phones, first OPPO announced the launch of Find N, and then Huawei announced the launch of P50 Pocket. The two major domestic mobile phone manufacturers released their new generation of folding screen products almost at the same time, coupled with the Xiaomi MIX FOLD listed some time ago, this year we have seen a number of folding screen mobile phones including Mate X2.
However, aside from the previous launch of several products, Xiao Lei wants to talk to you about Find N and P50 Pocket, these two folding screen mobile phones that have just been launched themselves represent the two major factions of folding screen mobile phones - vertical folding and horizontal folding.
Around the two mobile phones, netizens also began a fierce discussion, mutually supportive style is the future mainstream of folding screen, Xiao Lei after watching the discussion of netizens, but also want to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the two folding forms and future development from the perspective of industry practitioners.
Fold horizontally or vertically? It's actually a matter of usage habits
Folding screen mobile phone was born so far, in fact, just three or four years have passed, the first mass production of folding screen mobile phone Royole FlexPai is the horizontal folding design. However, unlike the horizontal folding screen mobile phones of Samsung, Huawei and other brands, Royole FlexPai adopts an external folding design, and the large screen will automatically extinguish half of the screen after folding outward, so that half of the screen will act as the main display in the half-screen state.
The Royole FlexPai is the only folding screen phone that folds outwards, as the design has many drawbacks. For example, the fragile screen exposure causes the fragile protective layer of the folding screen itself to be very prone to scratches and damage, and this protective layer is almost impossible to repair. In addition, the design of folding outward causes the folding angle of the screen to be much larger than the folding inward, so the screen crease of The Royole FlexPai is quite serious, and no other manufacturers have adopted this design since then.
Subsequently, Samsung launched the first generation of folding screen mobile phone Galaxy Fold, which also adopts the design of horizontal folding, but designs two screens inside and outside, and the user uses a separate external screen in the closed state, and in the open state, it uses a large-size inner screen.
Galaxy Fold can be said to be the first truly mature folding screen mobile phone, with leapfrog progress in screen parameters and system design. Subsequently, Motorola launched the first folding screen mobile phone - Moto RAZR, which adopts a completely different vertical folding design from the previous two folding screen mobile phones.
In the folded state, the Moto RAZR is more like a small headphone case that can be easily put in the pocket, while in the open state, it becomes a normal-size smartphone. The arrival of Moto RAZR announced that the design of folding screen mobile phones was completely divided into two factions, and also allowed netizens to start a year-long debate around different folding methods.
Users who support vertical folding believe that this design makes the carrying of mobile phones more convenient, and the small appearance is very popular with female users. According to Xiao Lei's survey, between find N and P50 Pocket, female users are more likely to choose P50 Pocket, for reasons other than "better looking" and "smaller".
From the perspective of use experience, vertical folding is a more portable ordinary smart phone, which is a good choice for users who have no need for large screens and want to experience folding screens. In contrast, the horizontal folding screen mobile phone has a larger size screen, which allows users to better handle text work and read complex documents such as PPT and tables, which will naturally be a better choice for business office people.
In fact, the user groups targeted at the two products are also completely different, the vertical folding user group is more inclined to treat mobile phones as communication tools and daily necessities, while the supporters of horizontal folding hope that folding screen mobile phones can take on part of the work of tablets and provide them with certain productivity support.
In Xiao Lei's view, the two folding forms do not need to distinguish a high and low, can coexist, whether it is Find N or P50 Pocket is one of the branches of the folding screen mobile phone, users can choose according to their own needs and preferences.
Where will the future of folding screens go?
In addition to the use habits, horizontal folding and vertical folding who represents the future of folding screen mobile phones is also one of the points of contention among netizens. For this problem, from the current folding screen mobile phone design and shipments, it is obvious that horizontal folding is more popular with users, but it does not mean that vertical folding will die in the future, and it has its own advantages.
In Xiao Lei's view, for most people, the folding screen mobile phone is more interesting than practical, an overseas digital blogger who has used Samsung Galaxy Fold3 for a long time also admitted in the program, although he likes the horizontal folding Galaxy Fold3, but most of the time he only uses the external screen of the mobile phone, the inner screen is only used when it is necessary to process files and handle multiple things at the same time, and the frequency of use of the two is about 75%: 25%.
In this regard, some netizens may refute: is it not fragrant to watch videos on a large inner screen? In fact, the effect is indeed general, first of all, the problem of the proportion of the inner screen, resulting in a large area of black bars at the upper and lower ends of the video when playing the video, the video screen only occupies the middle area, the actual display area is not much larger than the outer screen, and the expanded Galaxy Fold3 is not suitable for one-handed long-term holding.
Similarly, for gamers, large size inner screen does not actually bring a better experience, most games for folding screen mobile phone support is not perfect, problems including but not limited to: UI distortion, scale imbalance, up and down / left and right large black edges, etc. In the current landscape folding screen application scenario, the best experience is multitasking and text file processing, rather than entertainment projects.
Of course, the main reason for the above problems is that the relevant adaptation of software and systems is not done well, after all, for most software manufacturers, they do not have the energy to make the software perfectly adapt to the horizontal folding screen mobile phone. If you want to fundamentally solve the problem of software adaptation, one is the efforts of system manufacturers, so that the system of folding screen mobile phones can automatically adjust the display effect of the software, and the other is that the users who need folding screen mobile phones reach a certain number, forcing software manufacturers to adapt to mobile phones.
At present, both methods still need a lot of time to be realized, even if it is an international manufacturer like Samsung, it took three years to still not solve the adaptation problem of mainstream applications. For example, in the inner screen mode of the Galaxy Fold3, YouTube's application still has some functions missing, while vertical folding mobile phones such as P50 Pocket do not have this trouble, because the expanded mobile phone size is no different from ordinary smartphones, and the native support of the application is very in place.
However, the outer screen of the horizontal folding screen mobile phone is actually designed for this reason, for most users their usual use does not need to use a large size of the inner screen, can be the Fold N and other folding screen mobile phone as a relatively heavy ordinary smart phone to use.
Therefore, from a functional point of view, the design of horizontal folding does have a broader future, and it will also become the mainstream of high-end folding screen mobile phones in the future, because it combines the dual attributes of tablets and smart phones, and more work can be completed, which will become the first choice for people in business and technology circles.
Moreover, the horizontal folding screen mobile phone does not need to expand the device can be used, but also let its folding screen life is better than the vertical folding of the mobile phone, for the mobile phone use frequency of users, horizontal folding screen mobile phone is more convenient and more durable, because you do not have to use every use toss a fragile folding screen and reel.
However, from the perspective of popularity, vertical folding mobile phones may be sold in the mid-range and fashion markets with lower prices and more popular appearances, because vertical folding mobile phones are obviously less expensive than horizontally folded mobile phones, and it is easier to reduce the price to the level of acceptance by ordinary users. Taking Huawei's own folding screen mobile phone as an example, the price of the Mate X2 is still as high as 18799 yuan, while the price of the P50 Pocket is 8988, the price difference is more than double.
In addition, from the news received by Xiao Lei, the cost of the folding screen will be reduced to about 100 US dollars in the next one or two years, even lower than the screen cost used by the current high-end models of the iPhone, when the vertical folding screen mobile phone is sold to four or five thousand or even lower prices is not impossible.
For most people, it is still acceptable to spend four or five thousand to buy a folding screen mobile phone to try it early, especially female users who are very sensitive to the size and design of the mobile phone, and are more likely to be attracted by the vertical folding mobile phone. With the advantage of price, vertical folding screen mobile phones will also have a place in the market.
Therefore, Xiao Lei believes that the future of folding screen mobile phones must be two forms coexisting, horizontal folding mobile phones focus on high-end and business fields, and vertical folding mobile phones are oriented to the fashion and mid-range user markets.