The foldable phone technology. Why phone manufactures on the rush to launch foldable phones.

The Samsung Galaxy fold.

Until some months ago it was just but a rumor, and now the folding phone technology is finally here,p a totally new phone experience never experienced before.
The foldable phone technology is a new engineering concept that allows unfolding of a phone into a tablet, giving you a double experience whenever you want, and no need of walking with many devices at the same time.

What stands out here is not just a foldable phone, but a foldable screen. Imagine that.
The storm about this technology was first raised by a small company known as royole, when they launched the first ever practical foldable phone known as Flexai acording to Maxim.com.  But Samsung took the world by storm when it released its first foldable phone, the Samsung Galaxy fold.
Now each phone manufacturer is trying to outwit the others each coming with their own foldable design, some folding inwards like Samsung's galaxy fold, and others like Huawei mate-x folding outwards. The daring ones are even dreaming of having phones which you can  fold round your wrist like a watch, while those that want a shortcut are hinting on having phones which flap up to open into a tablet.
The galaxy fold, which was released with other high end Samsung devices took the show with its unique features including a foldable screen.
The galaxy fold is said to be a phone with 4.5- inch screen which unfolds into a nice 7.3 inch tablet. I believe Samsung had to use a number of screens to achieve this, since when unfolded, the small screen  goes in to the back of the tablet.
When opened into a tablet, the large screen supports up to three app multitasking, dividing the screen into three Windows, one half the screen and the other two taking the remaining half.
This means you can easily multitask up to three divergent activities simultaneously without having to switch from one app to another. For example, you can stream a movie while chatting on WhatsApp, at the same time doing a research on google all at the same time.
To change the positions of the active apps just long press the window and drag to where you want it to be.
To ensure that you do all this at lightning speed, the phone comes packed with 12 GB of RAM and 512 Gb  internal storage. The device is also 5G enabled.
The galaxy fold's magic doesn't just end there, as it has more tricks up its sleeve.
With inbuilt app continuum technology, you can easily change folds from the smaller screen to the other without closing active apps or loosing the open app current activities.
For instance, if you were chatting online on the first screen, you will still be in the same chat when you unfold to the large screen.
The galaxy fold is expected to be released on April 26 in the US and may 3rd in Europe.
Huawei mate X.

Just days after the release of the galaxy fold, Huawei released their own foldable phone the mate X, a phone with a front 6.6- inch screen which unfolds into an 8-inch tablet.
As compared to galaxy fold, the mate x looks more trendy, since it folds backwards such that the screen is on the other side bringing out a nice edge and giving the phone a slimmer look.
Xiomi didn't want to be left out of this fierce technological race, and it is said to have posted a short video on Weibo showcasing their own foldable phone.
If what is in the video is anything to go by, then Xiomi looks to have taken the lead in this one, with a foldable phone that can be folded twice on either side to transform it from a tablet into a phone, a clear indication that Xiomi have pushed the folding technology a notch higher.
Other manufactures including LG and motorolla have announced that they are also working on their own foldable phones and all that we have is to wait.
There have been various critics of this new phone technology, some warning that it might not be advisable to buy the first generation of the foldable phone despite manufacturers assuring users that these phones are as good as the once we are now familiar with, even better.

Early concerns and challenges that could face the foldable phone Technology.

The Samsung Galaxy fold was first announced February 20th 2019, but it's releases was not until September, almost 5 months later. What caused the delay? Well there were a number of design and user features that had to be first addressed, after first reviewers if the phone raised serious concerns that could not be overlooked. Apparently, these and other challenges are not eunique to the Galaxy fold only, and while many were addressed there are still a number of concerns and challenges that still face the foldable phone Technology including:

Durability.

In order to achieve a foldable screen, manufacturers had to use a special form of flexible OLED display that can allow bending without breaking, a clear indication that glass will be out of the question. While that is possible(bending), there are concerns that the display will wear out faster than ordinary flat displays due to the act of folding and unfolding of the device.

The folding also rules out any use of protective screen glass, and therefore the phone could be largely prone to scratches as well as cracks and you will have to be extra careful with your device. Nothing that these phones cost much more than current flagship devices, and that accidents happen, it will be quite unfortunate if you accidentally drop your foldable phone.

The foldable phones also use special type of hinges to fold, most of them usually hidden within the phone. The system increases more durability challenges on the phone, and could wear faster than other phone types.

Battery Life.

Apart from the cameras, a phone's display is the second highest battery consumer. While the OLED screen consume less battery than ordinary LCD displays, the size of the foldable displays is much bigger than in normal phones, and therefore increases battery consumption. The Samsung Galaxy fold comes with a 4380 mAh battery, while the Huawei Mate x has a 4500 mAh battery. Such battery sizes are still a challenge to the ordinary phones, and could be a huge challenge for the foldable display phones.

Cost.

The fold Technology is an expensive venture, and just like any other new technology we don't expect it to be any cheaper. In fact it will be much costly, considering the amount of work and Technology that goes into producing a workable practical foldable phone.

With the Samsung Galaxy fold estimated to have had an initial price of almost USD. 2,000, the foldable phones are way out of reach to ordinary phone users.

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