All along, the form of smartphones has been evolving according to our wishes. The functions have become smarter, and the design has also moved towards the full-screen concept with narrower and narrower borders. The folding screen form It seems that the moment smartphones were born, they were destined to appear.
What is a foldable screen phone?
Foldable screen phone refers to a smartphone with a screen that can be bent and folded in half. Folding screen mobile phones are designed in two ways: using a hinge structure to connect the screens, or using a magnetic structure or structures similar to Velcro, hooks and notches to connect the screens.
If divided according to folding methods, folding screen mobile phones can be divided into three types: horizontal inward folding, horizontal outward folding and vertical inward folding. Among them, companies such as Samsung, Huawei and Royole Technology that are the first to enter the folding screen mobile phone market all adopt hinge designs.
The development history of folding screen mobile phones
The earliest folding screen mobile phone was the KS8000 released by Kyocera in 2012, which used two independent 3.5-inch TFTLCD screens, each with a resolution of It is 800x480, and the combined visual size is 4.7 inches, which can be switched between single-screen mode, tablet mode, and multi-tasking mode;
In 2013, Samsung exhibited at CES, the international consumer electronics exhibition. A bendable OLED screen was developed, and based on the bendable characteristics of AMOLED, a concept phone of a foldable mobile phone was released. When unfolded, the concept phone is equivalent to the size of a tablet, but it has not yet been mass-produced;
In October 2017, ZTE released the AXONM mobile phone. The mobile phone consists of two 5.2-inch TFTLCD screens, which unfold into a 6.75-inch screen.
ZTE’s AXOM mobile phone is similar to Kyocera’s KS8000. It is a folding screen mobile phone based on two independent screens connected through a hinge. When unfolded, it can perform multi-task collaboration, and there is a physical separation between the two screens. , is not a true folding screen phone based on one screen;
In November 2018, Samsung exhibited a true folding screen phone at the Global Developers Conference, which realized the free folding of a screen, codenamed Galaxy F, this smartphone consists of a 4.6-inch front-facing AMOLED flexible screen and a 7.3-inch foldable screen. The 7.3-inch screen folds inward and can withstand more than 20,000 folds;
2019 2 On February 20, on the eve of the opening of MWC, it officially released the folding screen mobile phone Galaxy Fold, priced at US$1,980; then Huawei released the MateX foldable mobile phone on February 24. The mate Seam-jointed to form an 8-inch large screen, supporting fast charging and 5G functions;
On June 29, 2021, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. disclosed a patent for a flexible screen and foldable device to solve the folding effect of flexible screens Poor technical issues;
Recently, the media has exposed the parameter information of Samsung’s new generation folding screen mobile phone Galaxy Z Fold3. Vivo has also registered trademarks such as NEX Fold, which may mean that it intends to launch a folding screen mobile phone.
Dongmu Co., Ltd.’s subsidiaries Fuchi Hi-Tech and Jingyan Technology are leading domestic manufacturers in the MIM process field, and both have newly entered the TOP200 supplier list recently announced by Apple. This process can be applied to folding screen mobile phone hinges. Senior Sixue believes that Apple is expected to sell 15 million to 20 million folding screen iPhones in 2023; folding screen mobile phones may become a new form of smartphones, driving high-end models into the next wave of big products update cycle.
Difficulties faced by folding screen technology
1. Screen problem. Judging from the current folding screen mobile phones, the thickness after folding is a bit exaggerated. The small screen on the outside and the large screen on the inside, coupled with various mechanical connection structures, doomed the thickness of the folding screen mobile phone to be impossible. As thin and light as an ordinary smartphone.
Even if the volume can be reduced after folding in half, it only reduces the projected area, and the product itself still takes up a lot of space.
In addition, repeated folding in half is prone to obvious creases in the center line. The flatness and display effect of foldable flexible screens may not be comparable to ordinary LCD and OLED displays. Multiple folding may cause leakage and other quality problems, and even affect the service life.
2. Battery life problem. Since battery technology develops very slowly, battery capacity is slightly insufficient as smartphone screen sizes become larger and larger. However, the internal space of foldable screen mobile phones is reduced, and the volume must be controlled. It is conceivable that the battery capacity is likely to remain at the normal level or even less. Although the battery can be placed on one side of the device, the battery is small but the device can be made thinner or smaller. Batteries are placed on both sides, but neither is perfect.
3. Selling price issue. Even if the above problems are solved, due to new processes and new technologies, the price of folding screen mobile phones will remain as high as its popularity in a short period of time!
Most mobile phones cost no less than 10,000 yuan! Therefore, it is basically impossible to imagine that the development speed of folding screen is as fast as that of full screen. Therefore, folding screen mobile phones will take at least three to five years to perfect this folding screen technology.
The future development trend of folding screen mobile phones
1. The curved screen may become the final form of mobile phones
Looking at the development trend of screens in the mobile phone industry, it can be seen that the screen development trend of smartphones The screen-to-body ratio is gradually increasing, and the bezels are gradually getting smaller. From the initial touch screen to the narrow-bezel display, the emergence of curved screens has reduced the left and right bezels, and full-screen displays have become the mainstream trend. The development of comprehensive screens has reached its limit. If you want to continue to increase the screen size in the future, you can only consider folding screens.
Compared with folding screens, rollable screens can save more space by rolling, are more convenient to carry, and are more in line with consumer needs. Therefore, from the perspective of flexible AMOLED products, folding screens are still transitional. For flexible application products, rollable screens are the ultimate form of flexible OLED screen mobile phones.
2. Localization of flexible OLED panels
In the early days, most of the global flexible AMOLED production capacity was concentrated in South Korea's Samsung, with Samsung's market share exceeding 90%. At this stage, mainstream mobile phone manufacturers are entering the folding screen mobile phone market, which has greatly promoted the demand for flexible AMOLED in the mobile phone industry. Since flexible AMOLED production lines have the characteristics of high investment cost, high technical difficulty, and long yield ramp-up time, most panel manufacturers in Japan and Taiwan have withdrawn from the flexible AMOLED field due to lack of financial support. Driven by increasing demand, Chinese panel manufacturers have risen to the challenge and have invested heavily in flexible OLED production lines in the past two years. Several 6th-generation flexible AMOLED production lines have achieved mass production.
Write to the end
In the current environment of highly homogeneous mobile phone products, folding screens have opened up a path for differentiation. Due to their combination of portability and large-screen experience, they are almost certain to be In the future, it will definitely become a popular form of mobile phone and become an important part of the high-end mobile phone market.
However, the reality is very skinny. In the past two years, folding screens have always been a marginalized product and are far from being widely popularized. Senior Sixue boils down the main reasons to nothing more than three points: the product is fragile, the price is too high, and the software is poorly optimized.
Due to the immature hinge technology of folding screen mobile phones, the hinge itself is easily damaged, and the screen also has obvious creases. Some folding screens that use an outward folding solution are more likely to face screen wear problems. Therefore, users will inevitably find that the product is fragile during use, and the actual experience is not good.
In addition, the procurement cost of core hardware such as bendable flexible screens and hinges is high, and the yield rate during mass production is low. Previously, the mainstream Huawei and Samsung folding screen mobile phones were priced at more than 17,000 yuan. This puts it beyond the reach of ordinary consumers.