Recently, Royole Technology, which was once famous for folding screen mobile phones, reported that it was liquidated. Although Royole quickly refuted the rumors, it is an indisputable fact that it is in a deep predicament.
In many media reports, Royole is the originator of folding screen mobile phones. But this is a misunderstanding.
In October 2018, Royole released its first folding screen mobile phone, Flex Pai, earlier than Samsung, Huawei, OPPO, vivo and other leading mobile phone manufacturers.
(Source: Royole Technology Official)
But earlier, in 2017, ZTE and the American telecommunications company AT&T joined forces to release the ZTE Axon M, the first domestically produced foldable mobile phone in a broad sense.
In addition to the unusual product form, this product uses a Snapdragon flagship processor, standard 4GB+64GB storage specifications, the entire body is made of glass and aluminum alloy, and the starting price at the time of the debut reached $724.99 (equivalent to RMB 5242 at the time), which is more expensive than the iPhone 8 ($699) in the same year, and it is an out-and-out flagship product.
(Source: ZTE)
At the time of the device's release, ZTE executives said:
While the mobile technology ecosystem and consumer habits have changed over the past few years, the smartphone experience has only changed slightly during this time. Until today, the ZTE Axon M will be the beginning of a major shift in smartphone functionality, and the mobile experience of consumers will be significantly changed.
ZTE executives are only half right, and now foldable devices are indeed the direction of the smartphone industry. However, as a pioneer of a generation, ZTE Axon M did not succeed at that time, but was abandoned by both media evaluation and market performance.
Surprisingly, a large number of AT&T custom machines have crossed the ocean to China to be played by enthusiasts. Now, seven years later, I bought one for less than 300 yuan on Xianyu. Today, let's play with the mobile phone of the originator of the folding screen of the year, which is really interesting.
Here's its story.
"Folding" has a long history
If we flip the hour hand on the watch and go back ten years, you will find that the smartphones on the market are not only in the form of straight boards.
In that era of savage growth of smartphones, almost every manufacturer was trying different ways to solve problems, and no one could be sure that the iPhone was doing the right thing, what dual-screen phones, what transparent phones, and Motorola's milestones, backflips, rouge boxes, many models of that era left a deep impression on us.
（图源：Sharp AQUOS Crystal）
Among them, the most attractive product form is the "folding" that can integrate a large screen into a small body.
In fact, the idea of a folding device appeared as early as 20 years ago.
At MWC 2006, the Dutch company Polymer Vision (a screen company owned by Philips) presented the first rollable concept and foldable concept e-book, Readius, which was equipped with a 5-inch foldable e-ink screen, similar to the Royole phone, but was ultimately unable to launch due to the company's bankruptcy.
(Source: Readius)
As for the world's first testable folding phone, it is Fujitsu's dual-screen concept phone. Presented at Catec 2010, it looks like a hinge that crudely connects two screens, but it basically lays the foundation for an inward-folded phone.
(Source: Fujitsu)
In 2012, the world's first mass-produced dual-screen mobile phone and the first folding tablet were born in Japan. The Kyocera Echo, launched by the Japanese company Kyocera, features a unique slide design, while the Sony Tablet P, launched by Sony, features an inward folding design that is relatively popular today.
(Source: Kyocera)
In January of the following year, NEC and NTT Docomo jointly launched the NEC Medias W N-05E. Unlike the previous two products, the NEC Medias W has an outward folding design, and the secondary screen can be folded behind the phone. The camera can rotate with the screen, so you can shoot with just one lens facing forward and backward.
(Source: NEC)
Although these products look very cool, but judging from the market response at the time, consumers generally do not approve of this "two screens together" design, in addition to the poor display effect, the problem of software adaptation is even more distressing, which makes the above three mass production products suffer from different degrees of Waterloo, and the "folding" device has been silent for five years.
Then, it comes to our protagonist today - ZTE Axon M.
The first time to see the originator of domestic folding screens
Come, let me reveal the true face of ZTE Axon M.
The ZTE Axon M looks like a super-thick 5.2-inch phone without opening, and considering that Xiaomi released a full-screen phone MIX in 2016, the front design of this phone is also inconspicuous in 2017, and the flash and camera at the top of the screen are still quite obtrusive.
(Source: Lei Technology)
Because the hinge is on the right side of the fuselage, all the buttons of the ZTE Axon M are on the left edge, and from top to bottom are the SIM card slot, the volume button, the power button with fingerprint recognition, and a quick start button that is likely to be called the "AI button" today.
(Source: Lei Technology)
The button is placed on the left side, which means that the logic of this product is the opposite of that of Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy phone, and most Android phones.
Speaking from my own experience, I've picked up my phone more than once and pressed the power button with my thumb before realizing I had turned it upside down, and I've also had situations where I wanted to press the volume button when the screen was facing but pressed on the quick start button.
(Source: Lei Technology)
As for the quick launch button, I can double-tap it to launch the camera, or long-press it to launch my assigned app, and the video app will go straight to full-screen mode, which will save you a few seconds for users who are in a hurry to watch a movie.
Seeing this, the ZTE Axon M really doesn't look like a flagship phone, and even the design was a bit clumsy back then.
But as mentioned earlier, the Axon M has a feature that other phones do not have, and that is a second screen hidden on the back of the body.
ZTE Axon M has a 5.2-inch 1080P LCD screen on the front and back, and when you turn over the fuselage, two 5.2-inch small screens will form a whole 6.75-inch "big screen" - this size was indeed a bit amazing at the time, but it is mediocre today.
(Source: Lei Technology)
Placed together with today's folding screens, it's easy to see the difference between the Axon M and this product.
So the question is, with so many lessons from the past, what else can be done on one screen and must be done on two screens?
In order to solve this practical problem, unlike today's manufacturers who adapt to the software, ZTE has designed four different hardware display solutions for this product, which can be switched by clicking the M key at the bottom of the home screen.
(Source: Lei Technology)
The first is the simplest mode, called "Single Mode". As the name suggests, when I close the device, the Axon M enters this mode, at which point only the screen on the front of the phone will be lit up, and the user will not be able to switch to other modes on their own.
Then there's the "Expanded Mode", which is the logic for most foldable devices today. At this time, the two screens of Axon M will be merged into one large screen, except for overseas applications such as Chrome and YouTube, which are slightly adapted, even if there are no applications specifically optimized for large screens, you can also turn on the extended mode through the force fullscreen operation option in the settings.
(Source: Lei Technology)
From my personal experience, this mode is the closest thing to how current folding devices can be used, but in many cases I really can't find a reason to use extended mode. It does offer a larger screen, but at the cost of a bezel splitting the screen in the middle, and for someone like me, who cares about even the crease in the middle of the screen, I might as well watch a video like this.
Oh yes, in Bilibili portrait mode, the video just occupies the general screen, and the rest of the part can be browsed in the comment section or more recommended videos, which is an ideal use case.
(Source: Lei Technology)
Then there's the "Independent Mode", which allows me to run two applications side-by-side, which is a solution that doesn't have parallel horizons and split-screen mode. You can run both the Baidu Maps and Notes app, or Bilibili and Baidu Tieba at the same time, which is theoretically probably the most useful and practical of all the modes.
(Source: Lei Technology)
Finally, there is the "Mirror Mode", which allows the Axon M to display the same content on both screens. According to ZTE's vision at the time, this model was for people to fold their phones into a tent-like position and watch videos together, and in my opinion, this mode is basically as useful as today's foldable devices to advertise the hover function as a mobile phone holder.
(Source: Lei Technology)
As a standard foldable user, the experience of getting started with the Axon M was easier than I expected.
It was really fun to be able to have such a large-screen experience on a device back then, and when I needed to multitask and open two apps, the Axon M's experience was clearly a cut above the same year. Playing on a larger screen does make me feel more immersive, and thanks to the top-down design, most of the virtual buttons are at the bottom of the screen.
Immaturity of technology leads to experience defects
Due to the technical limitations of the time, the experience of Axon M in the unfolded state was actually quite problematic.
(Source: Lei Technology)
First of all, in order to cram a full two screens, the thickness of the Axon M came to 12.1 mm and the weight was 230 grams, which was quite an alternative existence in the case of the collective weight reduction of mobile phones at that time. Not only that, but because the battery is on the side of the phone, the weight of this device is completely asymmetrical, and even with CNC trimming, the Axon M still feels a bit sloppy.
When you fully unfold your phone and use this large screen, there will always be a black border in the middle of the screen that persecutes your sense of immersion. In addition, there is a common chromatic difference between the two screens of Axon M, and the display effect of the secondary screen in my hand is obviously much more yellow than the main screen, which still affects the look and feel of the screen against a pure white background.
(Source: Lei Technology)
By the way, what makes the ZTE Axon M suffer Waterloo is also the performance configuration.
As a product launched in the second half of 2017, Axon M was not equipped with the latest Snapdragon 835 processor at that time, but an earlier generation of Snapdragon 821 processor, and this happens to be two generations of products with a huge difference in reputation, and when Axon M entered the domestic market, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processors came out, and the performance gap was further expanded.
(Source: Lei Technology)
Not only that, but the unique folding state of the Axon M makes its performance even worse. The Antutu running score of this Axon M in my hand is still 26w, but as long as you operate it a little in the "Independent mode", the whole machine will become extremely hot, and the metal body will accelerate the sharp rise in the temperature of the fuselage, and it is difficult to top the glory of the king casually.
(Source: Lei Technology)
The pursuit of product form,As a result, this product can only be stuffed into a 20MP single camera,And this lens is also set on the front of the fuselage,This caused me to consciously flip the phone every time I wanted to take a picture with it,And all the apps that call the camera (such as WeChat Voice) work very badly in dual-screen mode,Give people a feeling of Xiaomi MIX 2 isomers。
(Source: Lei Technology)
However, when it comes to photo results, the Axon M's daytime imaging is actually okay, which is a small surprise.
It seems "ridiculous", but in fact it is "great"
In the ZTE Axon M, we can see a lot of familiar things.
For example, the audience of products that hope to be able to stuff large-size smart devices into their pockets, compared with the larger and heavier body of the same products, the hardware configuration that has been repeatedly compromised for the sake of product form, and the high degree of doubt about the adaptability of Android applications' large screens.
In fact, what clearly distinguishes the ZTE Axon M from earlier dual-screen devices is these unique software features, whether it is forcing full-screen running applications, synchronizing the left and right windows, running multiple applications, or watching movies in tent mode, these are experiences that predecessors like the Kyocera Echo simply can't do, and they are almost a must-have standard experience for today's folding screen devices.
(Source: Lei Technology)
And this also makes the ZTE Axon M the first folding phone that can truly execute the idea of a dual-screen device.
However, so many software problems, combined with a fragmented design and a core configuration that was nearly two generations behind the entire industry at the time, combined to make up this slightly awkward positioning of the product, and its existence once made the industry wonder if the idea of folding phones really had practical value.
就像当时The Verge给它的评价一样，“It is cool, but double the screen only brings us double trouble.” （它很酷，但是翻倍的屏幕数量只带来了翻倍的烦恼。 ）
(图源:The Verge)
Fortunately, with the iteration of technology, folding screen phones have now gotten rid of the controversy of these products to a certain extent, and are even regarded as the future of smartphones by the entire industry.
In addition to tech giants such as Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi, Blue-Green and Motorola, even Apple, which has always been thought to not follow the market trend, has put plans to release folding screen devices on the agenda, and this trend seems to be unstoppable.
Interestingly, to this day, many of the software issues on the ZTE Axon M still exist. Many Android apps still can't adapt to the unique proportion of the folding inner screen, the best choice when playing the game is still the appropriately proportioned outer screen, and the parallel vision function promoted by manufacturers is even more bugs than Axon M's "Independent mode", how to do a good job of folding screen background application switching is still a difficult problem to solve.
(Source: vivo)
The difference is that the significant improvement in hardware has made today's foldable devices much better in terms of basic experience. The core performance synchronized with contemporary flagships, comparable to the imaging capabilities of entry-level flagships, larger capacity batteries, flatter screens, and even the weight of the fuselage are almost the same as today's super-large cup products, which is getting closer and closer to the category of daily mobile phones.
As for ZTE, after a lapse of seven years, they finally showcased their latest folding screen phone at this year's MWC. This Nubia Flip may not be the most flagship product this year, but it may definitely be the vertically folded phone that hits the lowest price, ZTE is still the maverick mobile phone manufacturer, but now their imagination has a little more pragmatic flavor.
(Source: ZTE)
The question is, will ZTE, which has returned to pragmatism, still have a place in this field?