Four concepts such as Samsung's tri-fold smartphone--what is the prospect of commercialization?

Samsung highlighted sustainability and some home devices in its CES 2022 keynote, but left the true next-generation technology for the booth. The company's display division exhibited several collapsible concepts under development. It may lead to the design of new smartphones and tablets in the future.

Only after more than a decade of flat, generally similar-looking smartphones, the new design is exciting. The only non-flat Samsung smartphones currently on the market are the "Galaxy Z Fold 3" and the clamshell "Galaxy Z Flip 3". These 3rd generation foldable smartphones have a large screen for their compact size, but they have become a standard design. The new concept presented this time presents a different approach to the goal of enlarging the screen while maintaining the size of the device.

Moreover, it seems that it is already finished as a product that actually functions that can use the screen and OS, and the prospect of these becoming next-generation flexible display terminals is higher than the foldable concept launched by TCL and other manufacturers. I think.

Samsung Concept Products: Tri-Fold, Slide, Folding Screen Laptop

Samsung's display division has now unveiled four concepts at the CES exhibition booth. The "Flex S" is folded into an S shape, leaving part of the display on the outside. The "Flex G" also has two hinges, but the left and right sides are folded toward the center, so the screen fits all inside.

The "Flex Note" has a design close to the conventional one with one hinge, but when you unfold the device folded in half to the size of a tablet, a flat display that is similar in size to a PC display with a reasonable size appears. If you watch Samsung's video, you can see that the device has a touch-controlled lower half of the display, making it look like a laptop. It will be attractive to those who want to make the Galaxy Z Flip 3 as large as a laptop. However, ASUSTeK Computer's "Zenbook 17 Fold OLED" has taken the lead in commercializing such a concept.

The fourth concept product is the "Flex Slidable," which looks like a normal smartphone at first glance, but the right side of the display spreads horizontally. When you watch the video, the screen stretches only a few centimeters, but there is enough space to arrange the app icons in two rows. As a result, users will be able to switch apps without returning to the home screen.