We’ve been keeping up with the trend of foldable devices and dual display machines for a while now, showing you a variety of patents for such units. Now, for the first time we actually get a prototype of such an unit handled in front of the camera.
It doesn’t come from Samsung, LG or Microsoft. Instead it comes from ITRI, the Industrial Technology Research Institute from Taiwan, that demonstrated recently the features of this machine. It’s a foldable phone with an AMOLED display on board and it seems a bit beefy at first sight. It reminds me more of an e-reader than a smartphone, but with a few tweaks it may just make the cut.
We see it folded multiple times, used to take photos, to turn a page and other mundane tasks. The seam down the middle is pretty clear and there’s a slight fragility vibe I’m getting here. ITRI’s tests have shown that this AMOLED screen is able to take quite a bit of stress. It’s got a folding radius of 3 mm, it can be folded over 200,000 times and can withstand 1 kilogram of steel wool friction for up to 50.000 times.
Up until now, ZTE has been the closest to cracking the format, with the ZTE Axon M. Samsung should be next, since they’ve been teasing with the Galaxy X and Youm for many years now. And Microsoft’s got the Andromeda too.
