Samsung is apparently working on a new style of foldable phone – and may be releasing a future Z-series entry that actually resembles the letter Z when viewed from certain angles.
A patent shared on Twitter shows a foldable phone with three hinged sections that allow the device to fold into a zigzag shape as if it were a shower screen.
Samsung’s Triple Fold Patent Issued It’s a smartphone with a three-sided screen and two hinges that folds in a zigzag shape like a foldable screen. pic.twitter.com/4MNL6HxanvMay 3, 2023
While even the best foldable phones haven’t set the world on fire yet, it’s still early days for these devices and it makes sense for Samsung to continue to innovate with potential new designs.
Practicality? What is this?
Samsung’s patents, like any brand, are often the exploration of new concepts, and not every idea will see the light of day. And while a triple-fold phone like the one pictured in the patent might look cool, we have a few questions about how it would work in practice.
What would be the point of such a device? Perhaps that would be a lack of imagination on my behalf, but it seems to be more fun than useful for most. We can imagine that artists and architects could see the value of such a device, but it wasn’t enough to make the Z Fold sell iPhone numbers.
And let’s not forget that Samsung’s foldable devices are still vulnerable to physics. The first Fold was prone to breakage, and the more moving parts a device has, the more points of failure it has.
These are things Samsung would like to address before launching a new foldable phone. However, just because a device hits store shelves doesn’t necessarily mean every issue has been resolved – as the previously mentioned original Galaxy Fold showed. However, as a patent, all that must be must be novel, which is certainly true in this case.
Samsung has introduced other interesting foldable ideas that we have written about in the past. They included an entry from rotating camera module and wild slidingtogether with rolled up AND double fold concepts. However, when it comes to launching devices, Samsung has stuck to its book-style foldables and folds for now, so it may be a while before we see the South Korean company produce something like this Motorola’s foldable phone concept.