Several news Samsung patents have been spotted, and these are quite interesting, as they’re about dual-fold and tri-fold smartphone designs. These patents surfaced on USPTO and WIPO, by the way.
Samsung patented three rather interesting tri-fold smartphone designs
To be more specific, three different patents have been spotted, showing three different designs. We’ll take a look at each of them separately. All three of these patents have the same description, pretty much – ‘Electronic device controlling screen based on folding event and method for controlling the same’.
Now, the first model is based on the existing Galaxy Z Fold 2. The second one offers a Z-shape design, while the third one is kind of similar to the Galaxy Z Flip handset that the company announced.
The first design resembles a prototype foldable smartphone Xiaomi demoed last year
The first smartphone design, which you can see below this paragraph, is actually quite wide even when folded. Why? Well, the middle display part is twice as wide as the remaining two parts.
This handset actually resembles the Xiaomi prototype that the company showed off last year. One major difference between them is… this handset is folding inwards, while Xiaomi’s prototype was folding outwards.
A Z-shaped foldable smartphone design is also here
The second model, which you can see below this paragraph, shows a Z-shaped foldable smartphone. This actually makes the phone quite versatile. When folded, the device is considerably narrower than a regular smartphone.
When you unfold it, you get a lot of screen real estate. This particular design patent shows a phone with four cameras on the back, which are oddly-placed. This doesn’t necessarily mean that will be the case with the final product, if such a product ever reaches the market.
This model actually resembles the Galaxy Z Flip
The third model is actually a clamshell phone, or is at least based on one. This phone is kind of similar to the Galaxy Z Flip, but it can be folded in two places. When completely folded, its display is protected by the housing, completely.
When folded, you cannot use the device at all, though. If you just need to check out your notifications, you can simply unfold one part of it, not both of them. The same goes for when you need to take a quick picture, etc.
When you fully unfold this device, you get a rather long, and large display, longer than a 6.7-inch panel on the Galaxy Z Flip. There are a ton of use scenarios for such a display.
As you can see, Samsung patented some interesting foldable devices here. Some of them may actually make it to market, in this, or slightly altered forms. Perhaps we’ll see all of them at some point.