LG patents imaginative tri-fold smartphone-tablet hybrid with stylus support
2019 was supposed to be the year that foldable smartphones became a “thing” but that hasn’t really materialized to date for a variety of reasons. That, however, doesn’t mean that smartphones with foldable displays won’t become more commonplace in the near future. Although LG has indicated it isn’t currently working to bring a foldable device to market, at least in the short term, doesn’t mean it hasn’t been hard at work on the concept.
A patent discovered by Letsgodigital (and which has also been brought to life their clever CAD wizards) demonstrates just how seriously LG is taking the concept. To date, LG has been content with offering second screen accessories for devices like its V50 ThinQ 5G which it believes are both more practical and affordable for consumers. As the teething pains experienced by both Samsung and Huawei have shown with the Galaxy Fold and Mate X, foldable OLED panels are still very much bleeding edge technologies and are also very expensive as such.
The LG tri-folding device looks similar to the foldable smartphone that Xiaomi is currently working on, however, rather than folding evenly at the rear, it overlaps. This approach has been taken to create something approaching a full-size tablet when it is unfolded from its smartphone form factor. Not only that, the LG patent shows that the device also supports a stylus, which adds considerably to the overall utility of the device. Let’s hope LG changes tack and looks to get this device to market ASAP as it looks to have a lot of potential.
