Honor plans an exciting new approach to foldable phones

While most smartphones over the past decade have followed a similar design – a flat rectangular shape – foldable phones have been introduced over the past six years, but they are still struggling to become mainstream. At present, they have a very small market share.

An alternative route to a different design is to use rollable or flexible screens. LG showed off its LG Rollable in 2020, and Oppo and Motorola have since explored similar ideas. Now Honor seems to be venturing into this category as well with a new patent describing a rollable screen for a sliding phone, reports IT Home (via Neowin).

The patent, filed with China’s National Intellectual Property Office describes an “elastic beam structure” and a support structure for the screen. The aim is to improve the user experience by reducing bumps behind the screen.

In a nutshell, the idea is that the phone has two main parts. One is fixed while the other extends from one side meaning is can transform from a rectangle phone to a tablet-style device.

‘Elastic beams’ are being used to connect the two displays together and to ensure smooth operation. The “sliding screen support structure and electronic equipment” patent was approved on 3 December.

China State Intellectual Property Office

Rollable phones have been presented as a potential solution for the future, rather than the foldable phones that dominate innovation right now. However, various challenges remain.

Rollable screens can be more difficult to make completely flat, and the process of unrolling the screen takes longer than opening a foldable phone. In addition, there are issues of durability, as the entire screen is susceptible to wear and tear.

Still, we’d like to try one and it will be interesting to see whether Honor or a rival is first to market (though likely in China first).