Samsung is patenting slide-out displays for future phablets

For the past few years, quite a few designs for foldable mobile devices with flexible displays have received approval from patent-regulating authorities. Samsung, Apple and Microsoft have come up with innovative designs, yet no company has managed to release any commercial product that implements these interesting patents as of yet.

From what was shown thus far, it seems like Microsoft will be the first to implement a few foldable device patents in its upcoming Surface phone, but Samsung is also eyeing the release of a device featuring foldable tech in the near future. According to Patently Mobile, Samsung has recently applied for a new patent that involves a slide-out display, and this could be implemented in an upcoming phone/tablet hybrid model.

The new patent presents a device that has a fixed central display, which can be expanded on each of its sides with the aid of two flexible display portions that use a sliding mechanism. The larger screen would be excellent for viewing wide screen movies, online TV show and games once the 5G networks go live, making it easy to stream any content on the mobile platforms. The only downside of this design would be that this sort of hybrid device could become twice as thick as any premium model on the market today.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office made this patent application public last week, but Samsung actually submitted the design in July 2017. It is known for a fact that most patents do not end up in any commercial products, but this slide-out display design could push Samsung’s sales in case mobile streaming devices become popular in the future.

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