Huawei Z folding machine exposed! Hard Samsung, three-fold folding screen mobile phone to be popular?

In 1977, the computer company Tandy introduced the world's first "handheld computer", the TRS-80, which was a computer that could fit in a pocket in the truest sense of the word, and the designers even equipped it with a full alphabet keyboard. Until the first iPhone, people thought that a palm-sized computer was the trend in the consumer market.

Obviously, the iPhone is leading the way in the smartphone market, but at the same time, it has also made the design of the mobile phone market more and more boring. In 2019, Samsung and Huawei successively launched their first generation foldable smartphones, which are handy mobile phones in the folded state, but when unfolded, the screen is close to 8 inches and 4:3 ratio, which can be used as a tablet.

(Source: Huawei)

But that's not enough, there's more to foldable phones.

Taiwan's "Economic Daily" revealed that Huawei is developing a "Z-fold machine", a folding screen mobile phone that can be folded twice, and the screen panel is provided by BOE, which is expected to be available in the second quarter of this year.

This trifold foldable phone has a 28:9 or 18:9 aspect ratio, which when unfolded, can be close to the visual size of mainstream tablets on the market. People familiar with the matter said that instead of calling this product a tri-fold folding screen mobile phone, it is better to say that it is a folding screen tablet.

is both a mobile phone and a tablet, and the plan that Apple and Samsung are still thinking about was actually "preempted" by Huawei?

"Z-folding machine", is it a whole job or just needed?

A foldable mobile phone fully meets the needs of users who want both portable and large screens. For example, at the OPPO Find N3 press conference, OPPO spent a lot of time showing the progress of this folding screen mobile phone in the business office part.

(Source: OPPO)

At present, folding screen mobile phones have been given too many productivity work attributes by manufacturers, which has led to the display area of such products in the unfolded state has been "insufficient", such as multitasking, even if it is close to the 8-inch screen, it is still quite crowded between multiple applications.

Obviously, the three-fold folding screen is here to solve this problem.

Judging from the two patents related to the tri-fold folding screen registered by Huawei in March and July 2022, this three-fold folding screen mobile phone has three shells and two connections, that is, the three parts are connected by hinges. It is reported that this device can still maintain the size of 6.4 inches in the folded state, which is almost the same as an ordinary straight phone, and after unfolding, it is expected to exceed 8 inches, and the display area will be further increased.

(Source: TechnoPat / Samsung Trifold Solution)

Samsung exhibited two tri-fold display solutions at the 2021 International Information Display Society, and then unveiled the finished phones Galaxy Flex S and Galaxy Flex G equipped with these two solutions at the MWC 2023 flagship. Earlier, The Elec also broke the news that Samsung is preparing a tri-fold folding screen phone, but there has been no update progress so far.

But unlike Samsung's insistence on the "U-shaped hinge", Huawei has always been a fan of the "teardrop-shaped hinge", at least the creases on the screen will not bring users tactile and visual torture like the Galaxy Flex S and Galaxy Flex G.

（图源：TechnoPat）

In addition to the changes in appearance, the operating logic is also what we need to pay attention to. The solution shown by Samsung is not very mature in terms of UI layout, such as the desktop layout after one-way folding, which is still relatively messy. Huawei has always done a very good job in the folding screen UI part, and after the screen becomes larger, it can also create more productivity-related shortcuts, as for the final effect, it depends on the product.

In short, as a new form of smart phone, the folding screen has really landed in the consumer market in just a few years, and it is full of unknowns how this kind of product will change, how many new experiences it will bring to users, or whether it can stimulate the current mobile phone market that is still to be revitalized.

Folding screen mobile phone "volume form in the world"?

In 2014, Samsung released the world's first curved screen smartphone, the Galaxy Note Edge, which was also the first time that Samsung used flexible OLED panels in the field of smartphones. The emergence of curved screens has led the first revolution in the smartphone market in the form of "volume".

After the curved screen, Xiaomi MIX and iPhone X have been released one after another, making the screen-to-body ratio the extreme, which has become the direction that all mobile phone manufacturers have been developing in those years. In 2018, vivo exhibited the first "true full-screen" concept mobile phone, vivo APEX, with no holes or buttons on the whole body, and the front camera and earpiece are all placed under the glass panel, which is as exquisite as a work of art.

(图源:Veny Geskin1)

Of course, before 2019, the direction of mobile phone manufacturers was only the screen form, and the overall design of mobile phones still followed the rules of mainstream models, and it has not yet jumped out of the field of transformable forms. Then, Royole, Samsung, Huawei and other manufacturers launched folding screen mobile phones, setting off a wave of foldable.

(Source: OPPO)

It is worth mentioning that OPPO exhibited an OPPO X 2021 with scrolling screen technology in 2021, which is the same logic as most folding screen phones now, maintaining 6.7 inches in the non-unfolded state and 7.4 inches when unfolded.

At present, Motorola is still paying attention to scroll screen technology, but other manufacturers are basically silent. Whether it is a scrolling screen or a folding screen, the mechanical structure that assists in unfolding is a time bomb, and it is also the fatal wound that such products are difficult to obtain the recognition of mass consumers.

(Source: Huawei)

After several years of development, the hinge structure of the foldable screen has long been not a hard injury, and thanks to the advantages of integrating portability and large screen, it has won the favor of some consumers. TrendForce, a research agency, mentioned in the report that the shipment of folding screen mobile phones will reach 18.3 million units in 2023, with a growth rate of 43%.

Folding screen mobile phones are gradually recognized by the market, and manufacturers also have more room to study more different directions, such as the aforementioned scroll screen, or the three-fold folding screen mobile phone that Huawei is about to release.

It is reported that Apple is also planning to launch a folding screen device, or an iPhone, or an iPad. This is enough to show that smart devices that can change their form have formed a certain market, have a loyal audience, and are also forming a development trend. Huawei is the first to take the lead in the foldable smartphone market before all manufacturers, which is nothing more than trying to seize the opportunity.

Can the three-fold screen become the mainstream of the folding screen?

When folding screen mobile phones first debuted, service life became consumers' biggest concern for this type of new product, but after 5 years of development, most manufacturers have been able to give users a convincing answer. For example, Huawei's Pocket S has a folding life of 400,000 times, and even if it is folded 200 times a day, it can be used safely for 5 years.

And back to the tri-fold folding screen mobile phone, there are more challenges.

(Source: Huawei)

In 2023, we can see that the folding screen mobile phone market is developing in the direction of thinness and lightness, such as the Honor Magci Vs2 and Huawei Mate X5, which are all models that carry out "portable" to the end. In order to make the body thin and light enough, Huawei has specially designed an ultra-thin Type-C interface since the Mate X3, and its cost is self-evident.

Tri-fold folding screen mobile phones, which have one more layer than mainstream folding screen mobile phones, is a very big problem how to control the thickness in the folded state.

For example, the current mainstream folding screen mobile phones maintain a 4:3 display ratio in the unfolded state, which is consistent with most tablet products, and many applications have good adaptation to such a ratio, such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu. However, the three-fold folding screen is 28:9 display ratio after unfolding, and the UI interface adaptation may be difficult.

(Source: Huawei)

If the above problems can find a compromise solution, then the three-fold folding screen is still very meaningful for the mobile phone market. As we mentioned earlier, the folding screen itself is a product born to meet the needs of users with portable and large screens, and multiple folding devices can bring a larger display, which is undoubtedly the most efficient production tool for consumers with mobile office needs.

In any case, Huawei's market share of folding screen mobile phones in China in 2023 has reached 50.3%, and it is not an exaggeration to describe its status as "half of the country". As a leading brand in China's folding screen market, it is also a reasonable market strategy to create and find new growth points in the unexplored market segments. However, whether the tri-fold folding screen mobile phone can set off a new wave in the market is difficult to conclude before the product really arrives.