Page 58 - Forbes - Asia (April 2019)

TECHNOLOGY BEN SIN // GADGETMAN

Unfolding the Future

here’s a new phone released, or an-
Huawei Mate X
nounced, just about every week
these days—a sign that the mo-
Tbile industry is nearing a satura-
tion point—but this month we will see the re-
lease of something truly innovative. At least
for gadget geeks like me, this is genuinely ex-
citing: the foldable phone. This product isn’t
a rehash of the clamshell cellular phones of
the early 2000s, which had a screen on one
side and a dial pad on the other. Instead these
phones have a single screen that can fold and unfold like a book.
The appeal of a device that can
be both a tablet and a smartphone,
depending on how the user folds it,
is obvious. The idea has been a gad-
get fantasy for many years, but it
wasn’t attainable until the develop-
ment of organic light emitting diode
(OLED) displays, which are flexible
unlike LCD screens. Samsung Elec-
tronics, a leader in OLED, is nat-
urally the first out the gate, with Fold, so it was impossi-
the Galaxy Fold hitting stores this ble for the media to get
month. But China’s Huawei isn’t far a hands-on review.
behind: it too will release the fold- The company says it
able Mate X in June, using Chinese will host a press event
display maker BOE’s OLED panels. ahead of the phone’s
A bending screen generates a April 26 release date,
number of questions: Will the dis- where the media will
play show signs of creasing or color finally get to test the
distortion at the folding point? Does Samsung Galaxy Fold unit. The foldable de-
such a radical design make the de- vices, given their cut-
vice more prone to malfunction? ting-edge features, are
Will the device’s software be able to keep up with the con- pricey. Galaxy Fold will
stantly shifting screen size and orientation? retail at $2,000, while
Huawei quelled those concerns to some extent at the Mobile World Mate X is priced at $2,600. These two foldable
Congress in February when it allowed a small group of journalists (in- phones are obviously targeted at early adopters
cluding myself) to briefly try out the Mate X. After three minutes of and hardcore tech enthusiasts.
testing the device, I thought that the Mate X fared better than expecta- The good news is other Chinese brands
tions. The eight-inch display was vibrant, without noticeable creasing such as Xiaomi and Oppo already have work-
or color imbalance at the screen’s folding point. Overall thickness when ing foldable prototypes and both brands are
folded is still manageable, at 11mm. The software provided an almost known to sell their products at lower prices.
instantaneous change of display with apps jumping between a small Consumers may be better off waiting until
mobile screen to a larger tablet view within a split-second. At the same 2020, when more affordable foldable devices
event, only Samsung officials were allowed to handle the new Galaxy become available. F

Ben Sin is a Hong Kong-based contributor for Forbes Asia who writes about consumer tech.

54 | FORBES ASIA APRIL 2019