Sharp has decided to demo its foldable smartphone, similar to what Xiaomi did several times thus far. This smartphone is actually modeled after patent sketches that had surfaced last month. The device is shown in a 50-second video that is embedded down below.
As you can see in the provided video, the device folds right down the middle, and this video even goes up close and personal to show the point where the phone’s display bends. As you can see, the device has really thin bezels, but it also has a rather noticeable notch at the top of the display, it seems to be about the size of the OnePlus 6’s notch, for comparison’s sake.
The device that Sharp demoed features a 6.18-inch 3040 x 1440 AMOLED panel, and the company claims that the display can withstand 300,000 folding cycles without a problem, so durability of the device should not be in question if that is true. It seems like this device does not offer a secondary display on the outside, so you will have to unfold the phone whenever you want to use it, in any way.
The source (Engadget Japan) says that Sharp will probably release this smartphone in the future under its AQUOS brand, and that’s, unfortunately, all the info that was shared by the source. We presume this will be a high-end device due to manufacturing cost, but it remains to be seen.
It will be interesting to see if Sharp will make any changes to the final model, but it may be wise to include a secondary display on the outside, as unfolding the device every time you want to see your notifications seems unproductive. In fact, you will be unfolding that device tons of times every day, and most of those will probably be just to check your notifications or something of the sort.
Samsung and Huawei had introduced their foldable smartphones back in February, their first-ever foldable handsets, the Samsung Galaxy Fold, and Huawei Mate X. The Galaxy Fold is priced at $1,980, while the Huawei Mate X will cost even more than that, over €2,500. Both of those phones are high-end offerings, and their approaches to foldable smartphone designs are different, that’s for sure, but both of them are usable in a folded state as well.
Many other smartphone manufacturers are working on foldable phones as we speak, and Motorola is probably one of the more interesting ones, or should we say Lenovo. The company is planning to revive its Razr brand with its first foldable smartphone sometime this year, as the company’s patent design was already spotted a while back. If Motorola ends up utilizing that patent, its first foldable smartphone will resemble the old Motorola Razr cellphone quite a bit in terms of the design. The Motorola Razr was one of the company’s most successful smartphones, and initial reactions to the patent design that surfaced were also positive. It remains to be seen how well will Motorola execute its first foldable phone, and how much will it cost.
速報です。シャープが曲がる折りたたみスマホ向け有機EL展示。三重工場と堺工場で製造した「純日本製」パネルとなります。
https://t.co/cqi5Pi0Imrpic.twitter.com/uYt8lrK6s1— 小口貴宏 / EngadgetJP (@TKoguchi787) April 10, 2019