Since Samsung launched the Galaxy Fold in 2019, folding screen mobile phones have been very concerned by netizens, and several major manufacturers such as Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and so on have also come up with their own folding screen mobile phones in the past two years. And with the formation of market competition, the price of folding screen mobile phones has gradually shown a downward trend from the initial approach to 20,000 yuan, especially the average price of OPPO Find N and vivo X Fold listed this year has been less than 10,000 yuan, which has attracted many users to buy. However, if the folding screen mobile phone wants to be popularized, it may also need to solve the following pain points.
First of all, it is a question of price. Although the price of OPPO Find N and vivo X Fold listed this year has been much cheaper than that of folding screen mobile phones in the previous two years, the price of seven or eight thousand yuan is still unaffordable for most young consumers. After all, this price is equivalent to the salary of many people for one or two months, if it is only for a foldable screen to spend two or three thousand yuan more, many people will feel that it is not cost-effective.
The second is the thickness and crease problem that folding screen mobile phones cannot avoid. Now ordinary smart phones are thin and light as the main selling point, most of the thickness of mobile phones are controlled within 8mm, the weight is also within 200g, easy to carry around. The thickness of the folding screen mobile phone in the folded state will usually exceed 1cm, and the weight is often close to 250g. Therefore, folding screen mobile phones often need to carry a bag with them, which is a bit troublesome for boys who usually do not like backpacks.
In terms of screen, although several new folding screen mobile phones use ultra-thin flexible glass made of UTG material, the hinge design has also undergone many evolutions, but after the flexible screen has been folded for a long time, the folding area will more or less appear creases, thus affecting the visual effect.
The third is the problem of application scenario adaptation. Many netizens choose a folding screen mobile phone because they think that watching videos and playing games in the large-screen mode will be very cool, but most of them will be disappointed after really using the folding screen mobile phone. This is because the screen ratio of the folding screen is different from the screen ratio of mainstream videos and games. The inner screen ratio of the folding screen is usually close to 1:1, that is, a square, while the screen ratio of video and games is usually 16:9, that is, the ratio of monitors and televisions. Therefore, if the ordinary video is displayed on the folding screen mobile phone, a large blank area will be left on the screen, resulting in a waste of display range, and the effective utilization rate of the screen is actually similar to that of ordinary mobile phones.
The screen resolution of most mobile phone games is also designed according to the widescreen ratio of ordinary mobile phone screens, so if it is displayed on a square folding screen mobile phone, in addition to the inconvenience of operation, the field of view of the game will be reduced.
Although due to the rise of folding screen mobile phones, many mainstream APPS have also begun to adapt for folding screen mobile phones, such as the addition of functions such as "parallel horizon", which can divide the folding screen into two, and display different content on both sides at the same time. But these require application developers to actively adapt, if some commonly used applications do not design a large-screen mode, it is more uncomfortable to use on folding screen mobile phones.
If you want to apply and game developers to design a set of UI for the folding screen, you must first let the folding screen mobile phone have a certain market share. However, at present, folding screen mobile phones are still only a few high-end enthusiast users will consider buying, and the market share is not high. This makes applications and game developers not pay attention to the dedicated display mode of the folding screen.
Of course, folding screen mobile phones still have many advantages, it can indeed replace tablets or notebooks to achieve light office. For example, in the high-speed rail and other environments where the space is more crowded, it is necessary to edit documents and other simple operations, and it is still very convenient to use a folding screen mobile phone to deal with it. It is believed that with the continuous maturity of the folding screen technology process, the price of folding screen mobile phones will become lower and lower. Coupled with the fact that more applications and games are beginning to adapt to the folding screen, the folding screen will definitely become an evolutionary direction for future smartphones.