LG files another patent application for a foldable phone

Recently, LG announced that their dual-screen smartphone will be ready for release next month. Yesterday, their patent for a specially designed foldable phone was approved.  The device bears resemblance to the Samsung Galaxy Fold, but with a Z-Fold folding system.

LG’s patent shows a Z-fold device, and as one of the images here shows, the third screen is a stand-alone unit and appears to fold back onto the front surface of the smartphone. The design would give a full front screen that looks pretty much like all the smartphones we are used to seeing today that can unfold into a device that has a screen three times as wide when needed.

The design patent was filed in China on 6th March 2019, and included 18 sketches of a rectangular-shaped folding device with two displays; one of which is a flexible screen. The smartphone unfolds according to the Z-Fold principle, which is also used in brochures for the retail trade. After you unfold the phone, you’ll see a flexible screen which is twice the length of a regular screen and folds open in width like a tablet.These images omit any ports, USB included, where one might expect to find them. There is a series of symmetrical small holes along one edge that could be for speakers, but that is it. Therefore, it appears that LG intends to go fully wireless for this potential foldable phone – a risky strategy that has worked out poorly for other OEMs in the past.

Seeing something even remotely similar to the Z-FOLD in actual physical form from LG is pretty unlikely in the near future. Still, there are plenty of great ideas to improve on contemporary foldable display smartphones worth exploring here, and we look forward to seeing LG progress this idea further.

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