At the beginning of the year, at CES 2019, Huaxing Optoelectronics showcasedHole-punch mobile phone screen panel, and also recently revealed the plans to build5 types of mobile phones with foldable screensLater, TCL also demonstrated two of its foldable screen designs during MWC 2019, including a similarSamsung Galaxy FoldIt adopts a flexible screen design that folds from the outside to the inside, but it is divided into two types: horizontal folding and vertical folding.
TCL explained that one of its foldable phones features a 7.2-inch, 2K resolution flexible AMOLED panel. Its narrow bezel design allows for a 90.73% display-to-body ratio and supports 100% NTSC wide color gamut.
In addition, this design will use a hinge design called DragonHinge, which allows the screen to be folded in half, so that the body can be close to a flat stacking form. The outside of the body is also equipped with a set of screens and a 4-lens camera module, but the inner screen end does not have an additional lens design.
While BOE and Royole both employ a design where the screen remains concave outward, TCL's CSOT adopts a design similar to Samsung's, where the screen remains concave inward. This allows for a wider angle of folding, which poses a greater challenge to the durability of the fold. However, TCL has not disclosed the number of folds this design can withstand.
According to Samsung, the flexible screen used in the Galaxy Fold can withstand approximately 20 folds. If opened and closed 100 times a day, it can correspond to a service life of approximately 5 years.
Another foldable phone design displayed by TCL is designed in the form of a wallet and is used by folding it vertically. Although it corresponds to a smaller screen size, the actual folding angle is obviously still not large, resulting in a very obvious gap between the thickness of the body after folding and the screen. However, since it is still in the concept design stage, there should be opportunities for improvement in the future.
