What is a folding screen mobile phone?
Folding screen mobile phone refers to a smart phone whose screen can be bent and folded in half. There are two ways to design the folding screen mobile phone: using hinge structure to connect the screen, and using magnetic structure and structures like hook and loop, hook and notch to connect the screen.
According to the folding method, the folding screen mobile phone can be divided into three types: horizontal folding, horizontal folding and vertical folding. Among them, Samsung, Huawei and Yu Rou Science and Technology, which were the first to deploy the folding screen mobile phone market, all adopted hinge design.
Development course of folding screen mobile phone
The earliest folding screen mobile phone is KS8000 released by Kyocera 20 12. It has two independent 3.5-inch TFTLCD screens, each with a resolution of 800x480, and the combined visual size is 4.7 inches, which can be switched between single screen mode, tablet mode and multi-task mode.
In 20 13, Samsung exhibited the flexible organic light-emitting diode screen at CES, and based on the flexible characteristics of AMOLED, released the concept machine of foldable mobile phone, which was equivalent to the size of a tablet computer after deployment, but was not mass-produced.
20 17 10, ZTE released the AXONM mobile phone, which consists of two 5.2-inch TFTLCD screens, and it became a 6.75-inch screen after expansion.
ZTE's AXOM mobile phone is similar to Kyocera's KS8000. It is a folding screen mobile phone which is composed of two independent screens connected by a rotating shaft. After expansion, multi-task collaboration can be carried out, and there is a physical division between the two screens, which is not a real folding screen mobile phone based on one screen.
2065438+08165438+1October, a real folding screen mobile phone was exhibited at the Samsung Global Developers Conference, with a freely foldable screen, code name GalaxyF. The smart phone consists of a 4.6-inch front AMOLED flexible screen and a 7.3-inch foldable screen, which folds inward and can withstand more than 20,000 folds.
2065438+On February 20th, 2009, GalaxyFold, a folding screen mobile phone, was officially released on the eve of the opening of MWC, and the price was 1980 USD. Subsequently, Huawei released MateX foldable mobile phone on February 24th. MateX uses a 6.6-inch main screen and a 6.38-inch sub-screen, which can be seamlessly docked into an 8-inch large screen, supporting fast charging and 5G functions.
On June 29th, 20021year, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. disclosed a patent for flexible screen and foldable equipment to solve the technical problem of poor folding effect of flexible screen.
Recently, some media have exposed the parameter information of Samsung's new generation folding screen mobile phone Galaxy Z Fold3, and vivo has also registered trademarks such as NEX Fold, which means that it intends to launch folding screen mobile phones.
Fuchi Hi-Tech and Jingyan Technology, subsidiaries of Dongmu Co., Ltd., are leading manufacturers in the field of MIM technology in China, and both companies have newly entered the list of top 200 suppliers announced by Apple recently. This technology can be applied to the hinge of folding screen mobile phone. Senior Sixue believes that Apple is expected to sell 6.5438+0.5 million to 20 million folding screen iPhones in 2023. Folding screen mobile phones may become a new form of smart phones, pushing high-end models into the next big update cycle.
Difficulties faced by folding screen technology
1. Screen problem. Judging from the current folding screen mobile phone, the thickness after folding is somewhat exaggerated. The small screen outside, the big screen inside, and various mechanical connection structures are doomed to be as thin as ordinary smart phones.
Even if the volume can be reduced after being folded in half, it only reduces the projection area, and the product itself still occupies a lot of space. In addition, the folding center line is prone to obvious creases, and the flatness and display effect of the foldable flexible screen may not be compared with ordinary LCD and OLED displays, and quality problems such as liquid leakage may occur after repeated folding, even affecting the service life.
2. battery life. Due to the slow development of battery technology, the battery capacity is slightly insufficient when the screen of smart phone is getting bigger and bigger. However, the internal space of the folding screen mobile phone is reduced and the volume has to be controlled. It is conceivable that the battery capacity is likely to remain at a normal level or even lower. Although the battery can be placed on one side of the device, the device can be made thinner, or placed on both sides at the same time, it is not perfect.
3. the price problem. Even if the above problems are solved, the price of folding screen mobile phone will be as high as its heat in a short time, because of new technology and new technology!
Most mobile phones will not be less than 1 10,000 yuan! Therefore, it is basically impossible to imagine that the development speed of folding screen is as fast as that of full screen, so it will take at least three to five years for folding screen mobile phones to improve this folding screen technology.
Future development trend of folding screen mobile phone
1. Scrolling screen will become the final form of mobile phone.
Looking at the screen development trend of the mobile phone industry, we can see that the screen proportion of smart phones is gradually increasing, and the border is gradually decreasing. From the initial touch screen to the narrow border display, the appearance of curved screen has narrowed the left and right borders and become the mainstream trend. However, the development of full screen has reached its limit. If you want to continue to increase the screen size in the future, you can only consider folding the screen.
Compared with folding screen, folding screen can save more space by crimping, which is more convenient to carry and meets the needs of consumers. Therefore, from the perspective of flexible AMOLED products, folding screen is still a transitional application product, and curling screen is the ultimate form of flexible OLED screen mobile phone.
2. Localization of flexible OLED panels
In the early days, most of the global flexible AMOLED production capacity was concentrated in Samsung, South Korea, and Samsung's market share exceeded 90%. At this stage, mainstream mobile phone manufacturers have laid out the folding screen mobile phone market, which has greatly promoted the demand for flexible AMOLED in the mobile phone industry. Because the flexible AMOLED production line has the characteristics of high investment cost, great technical difficulty and long climbing time of yield, most panel manufacturers in Japan and Taiwan Province Province of China quit the layout of flexible AMOLED field due to lack of financial support. Driven by increasing demand, panel manufacturers in China are facing difficulties. In the past two years, they have invested in flexible organic light-emitting diode production lines on a large scale, and several 6-generation flexible AMOLED production lines have been mass-produced.
Write to the end
In the current highly homogeneous environment of mobile phone products, folding screens have opened up a road of differentiation. Because of its portable and large-screen experience, it is almost certain that it will become a popular mobile phone form in the future and an important part of the high-end mobile phone market.
However, the reality is very skinny. In the past two years, folding screens have been marginalized products, far from reaching the level of mass popularization. Senior thinking comes down to three main reasons: product fragility, high price and poor software optimization.
Because the hinge technology of folding screen mobile phone is immature, the hinge itself is easy to be damaged and the screen has obvious creases. Some folding screens with external folding schemes are more likely to face the problem of screen wear. Therefore, users will inevitably find the product fragile and the actual experience is not good.
In addition, the procurement cost of core hardware such as flexible screen and hinge is high, and the yield in mass production process is low. Previously, the mainstream Huawei and Samsung folding screen mobile phones were basically above 1.7 million yuan, which was difficult for ordinary consumers to access.