Content
- No more wrinkles
- Cameras need to get better
- Normal multitasking and application adaptation
- More interesting features
- The autonomy of the tablet, not the smartphone
Folding smartphones are slowly taking over the market. According to the analytical agency Canalys, by 2024 the shipments of foldable smartphones will exceed 30 million units, while by the end of 2019, when these devices first appeared on the market, only 8.9 million were sold. Samsung was and remains the main manufacturer of clamshell phones , but more and more companies are getting into this technology race. Foldable smartphones are available from Huawei and Honor , Xiaomi , Oppo , Vivo will soon have such a smartphone.
Every self-respecting brand strives to make a device that will be something better than its competitors. Nevertheless, the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Flip foldable smartphones remain the most balanced, thoughtful, and therefore commercially successful. The third generation of the “fold” and the second generation of the “flip” (the number 3 appeared to him to match the Fold line) clearly showed that folding smartphones can be not only expensive, but also convenient and cool. Alas, they are not ideal.
What should be the ideal folding smartphone? What weaknesses does the Galaxy Fold 3 need Samsung to address to make the Fold 4 even more successful? What should all manufacturers pay attention to? Now let’s figure it out.
No more wrinkles
The main problem with all flexible screens in foldable smartphones is the visible and tangible crease. For some, it is more noticeable, for others less, but there is not a single similar device on the market yet, in which the fold would not only be invisible, but also impossible to feel. According to rumors, Vivo will be the first company to be able to implement such a screen without wrinkles, but we’ll see. The same Oppo Find N, instead of one fold, had two at once, imperceptible only at certain angles.
This is no longer a fold, but a whole trench
Of course, easier said than done. Fitting all the components inside the case and leaving room for a special hinge that can smooth out the creases is not an easy task. Otherwise, everyone would have already done it. But this does not mean that this will not happen in the near future. According to rumors , the Samsung Galaxy Fold 4 will receive one single hinge instead of two, which will positively affect the weight, thickness, and, most likely, the uniformity of the smartphone screen.
This is what the Galaxy Fold 3 looks like unassembled
Cameras need to get better
Photographic capabilities remain another problem with foldable smartphones, again due to the inability to fit the best components in such an unusual case. But when you buy a $2,000 smartphone, you don’t want to think about why there’s a camera that doesn’t hold up to the flagship level. It should correspond to the price of a smartphone – period.
There is progress towards solving this problem. For example, Honor equipped the Magic V foldable smartphone with a set of three 50MP cameras as the main creative tools, and complemented them with two front cameras of 42MP each. The Vivo X Fold is also expected to receive an impressive set: a 50MP main sensor with OIS, a 48MP wide sensor with a 114-degree capture angle, a 12MP portrait camera and a 60x periscope with OIS. In general, there is progress. Now the main thing is that this should become the standard for all such devices.
Normal multitasking and application adaptation
The advantage of foldable smartphones is that they offer more screen when unfolded than conventional smartphones. But this is true only if we are talking about devices like the Galaxy Fold, while devices like the Flip or P50 Pocket do not offer this and emphasize more on the image component than on the functional one. Folding smartphones with a large internal screen are still full of problems both with optimizing and adapting applications for this very screen, and in general with the implementation of multitasking. There is no single standard – all folding smartphones work differently, offer different ways to separate displays and different options for adapting applications.
Implementation of multitasking in Fold 3
Putting things in order with applications and many windows, in theory, can be a special version of Android 12L, designed for large tablets and foldable devices, announced back in October last year. As planned , it should simplify the management of the two halves of the screens and take multitasking devices to a new level through the introduction of the taskbar and easier interaction with windows.
This spring, the distribution of the system to the flagship devices of brands should begin, but the first devices with pre-installed Android 12L will probably appear only in the fall. I would like to believe that after this, folding smartphones will really become more convenient and easier to manage.
More interesting features
Despite the foldable design, smartphones don’t take advantage of this much in terms of unusual features available in folded or semi-folded mode. Most often, such devices offer to take pictures on the front camera, print on one half of the screen, manage some applications that are supported, or watch videos in a half-bent mode, using one half as a stand. On this chips, as a rule, end.
Can you think of something else? Surely you can. With the same games, a whole scope for imagination opens up if you place virtual control keys on one half of the screen, and an image on the second, but only single projects now offer something like this. Manufacturers of foldable devices should work closer and closer with developers of games and applications, including various programs for processing photos or working with documents, which allow full use of both screens, and not be limited to the usual tablet interface, stretched into two halves. The more interesting features such devices offer, the more attractive they can become for the masses.
The autonomy of the tablet, not the smartphone
The biggest problem with foldable devices is that they live on battery like average smartphones, but they should live like not the worst tablets, especially those devices that have a large screen inside. Two or three days of work for such gadgets is an unattainable dream. It is clear that the outer and inner screens consume much more energy and take up much more space, but new battery technologies, more modern chipsets and improved software optimization are exactly what such innovative and advanced devices so desperately need. Why buy an undersized tablet if it works like a regular smartphone and runs out of battery by the end of the day?
It would not hurt to pay attention to fast charging technologies. If Chinese manufacturers are more or less in order with this, then the Samsung Galaxy Fold 3 support for a 25-W charger seems already ridiculous. Reverse chargers, wireless chargers are all cool, but not when your phone runs out of power by the end of the day, but takes forever to charge. It is unlikely that we will see tablet autonomy in such devices in the next couple of years, but I want to believe that at least two days of work for such smartphones will very soon become the gold standard.
What else do foldable devices lack? What features would you like to see in such smartphones? Which existing folding device would you like to buy? Write in the comments, let’s discuss!
© Maxim Kurmaev. mobile phone
Sourced from AndroidCentral
