In October 2018, Royole Technology released the world's first folding screen smartphone at the Beijing National Convention Center, creating a new product form. In 2019, under the impetus of giants such as Huawei and Samsung, folding screen mobile phones have officially entered the era of commercialization.
In the following two years, Huawei and Samsung have iterated on products, and Xiaomi has also joined the battlefield for a time, but it has not made the folding screen a mainstream product form. As a "pioneer", Royole has reported a large-scale wage arrears at the end of 2021, and "wind and rain" is already the most euphemistic description of its current situation.
However, at the same time at the end of 2021, the folding screen track suddenly began to become lively: first OPPO released the Find N in December, and after entering 2022, Honor and vivo also entered the game. At this point, in addition to the maverick Apple, the world's mainstream mobile phone brands have embarked on the track of folding screens.
This also makes people wonder, why do mobile phone manufacturers suddenly start to concentrate on folding screens?
Perhaps, the centralized outbreak of folding screens is related to the collective lack of innovation of manufacturers.
A few years ago, the mobile phone industry can always bring us surprises: the ultimate cost performance of the Xiaomi generation, the fingerprint unlock of the iPhone 5S, the dual camera module of huawei Mate 9, the face ID of iPhone X... These functions or features are not only novel, but more importantly, they really change the way we use mobile phones. At that time, consumers "threw" mobile phones not purely to catch up with the fashion, but to a large extent to enjoy more advanced and practical functions.
But nowadays, mobile phone manufacturers have not found new innovation points for the time being, and can only repeatedly excavate in image and chip performance, and features such as curved screens and even 5G are regarded as "chicken ribs", which leads to a decline in consumer desire to change machines, which in turn makes the overall sales of mobile phones decline.
If you want to increase mobile phone sales, high-end is a feasible route. However, this has extremely high requirements for the comprehensive strength of manufacturers, in addition to chip design capabilities, supply chain control, marketing channels and other links can not be wrong. At present, the powerful Huawei has been sanctioned, and other Android mobile phone brands need deeper technology accumulation, which has also created a situation in which Apple is the only one in the high-end market.
High-end takes time, but in a rapidly changing market, time is the scarcest resource. Therefore, using enough differentiated products to attract attention and strive for more market share, so as to win more time for high-end, has become a common choice for mobile phone manufacturers.
To this end, the folding screen with a novel shape was pushed to the front of the stage.
The manufacturer's wishful thinking is exquisite, but whether the customer can accept it must be marked with a question mark. The core problem facing the current folding screen mobile phone is: what can it bring to the user?
The core feature of the folding screen can be summarized as increasing the display area and reducing the body volume. For some business people, the larger display area can help them better handle some documents and forms; for reading enthusiasts, the look and feel of folding screen mobile phones, including the sense of substitution when unfolding, can help them find the feeling of using paper books.
In some other scenarios, the folding screen does not have such a big advantage.
In the cognition of many people, since the folding screen mobile phone screen is larger, it is naturally more suitable for watching movies and playing games, but at present, most folding screens are displayed in a 4:3 ratio after expansion, and some are even close to 1:1, while the display ratio of most videos and games is 16:9 or 21:9. Consuming this content with a folding screen often results in large black bars and cut images.
It is not difficult to see that the advantages and disadvantages of folding screen mobile phones are largely overlapping tablets, in other words, folding screen mobile phones are to replace tablet computers.
But once the comparison object of folding screen mobile phones is changed from mobile phones to tablets, its status is more and more embarrassing.
In order to experience the benefits of folding screens, what do users need to pay?
The first is the price is not cheap, the current cheapest OPPO Find N also sold for 7699 yuan, and its screen size when not unfolded is smaller than the iPhone 13 mini, it is difficult to say suitable for all users.
The second is the inherent defects of the folding screen: fragile screens, unignowable creases, hinges with limited life, etc., which make users more worried and afraid when using.
Finally, the weight, most folding screen mobile phones are currently weighing more than 270 grams, and the latest vivo X Fold even reached 311 grams. Unless the mobile phone manufacturer achieves a huge breakthrough in materials, it is difficult to see that the weight of the folding screen can be controlled in the short term.
These problems, if compared with the iPad mini, will appear even more glaring.
In terms of the core price, the starting price of most folding screen mobile phones is currently around 10,000 yuan, and with this price, you can buy an iPhone 13 and an iPad mini.
In terms of display effect, the iPad mini size is 8.3 inches, which is larger than all folding screen products on the market, and the ratio is close to 16:10, and the video game effect is better.
In terms of durability, although Apple products are not known for their toughness, the straight board design is naturally more reassuring than the folding screen, not to mention that the film and shell are more convenient.
Perhaps some people think that the folding screen is more portable, which is naturally correct, but if the definition of portability is "can be installed in the pants pocket", then how portable is the folding screen that is more than half a pound? If it is placed in the bag, how much else can the gap of 3 or 40 grams be perceived?
Finally, the iPad mini has a richer set of accessories and better software adaptations.
From the various comparisons, it is not difficult to see that compared with the tablet computer of about 8 inches, the advantage of the folding screen seems to be that it can only be used as a mobile phone and can make a call. Perhaps, only those who have the ultimate pursuit of an integrated experience will see the folding screen as a more practical choice.
To put it more bluntly, "what can the folding screen bring to the user" is not the most core question, the real question should be asked: at present, how many users need such a product?
From the current development situation, the advantages brought by folding screen mobile phones are more reflected in some functions that are not frequently used, and the performance is not as good as that of tablets of similar sizes to a large extent. Therefore, unless there is a big breakthrough in one or two of the three aspects of cost, durability, and volume and weight, it is difficult for folding screen mobile phones to become the mainstream in the market.
However, from a long-term perspective, the emergence of folding screen mobile phones has really led to the innovation of screen technology and mechanical structures such as hinges. Even if the folding screen eventually becomes a flash in the pan, the new technologies and new designs derived in this process are bound to shine on more new forms of products in the future.