If there had been Mobile World Conference in 2020, the TCL smartphone prototype that rolls up the screen would probably have been a "poster star" but the cancellation of the Barcelona fair messed up all the plans of the technology companies and also caused the Chinese brand to postpone its disclosure. for more information about their new "foldable". This is an area where the company wants to be, and where they have almost unique competences, which result from their work in the area of ​​screens, but Stefan Streit explained, in an interview with SAPO TEK, that TCL will only move forward when the concept is more mature.
At MWC 2019 and later at IFA 2019, SAPO TEK had experimented with some of TCL's flexible screen smartphone concepts, and naturally, engineering and product development continues to evolve, not least because the company has more than a dozen prototypes that is developing.
The tri-fold concept is one of the most interesting, with an innovative format that takes advantage of a flexible and dynamic display that was developed with TCL-CSOT, but the system that rolls up the screen, and that uses flexible, more disruptive AMOLED technology, it has primacy in terms of advertising and brings with it the potential to become a model to be applied.
None of the concepts already have a commercial name, but TCL explains that the way the screens curve and curl, and the hinges themselves, have yet to evolve, but that they take advantage of technology that is being developed in the company and that will help reimagine the future of mobile devices.
On the roll-up smartphone, TCL uses flexible AMOLED technology, achieving a device that "stretches" the screen, using internal motors that allow you to easily switch from 6.75 mm to 7.8 mm of display, simply by pressing a button. The user experience will be closer to a tablet, with the possibility of having several active windows and multitasking.
TCL guarantees that there are no creases or wrinkles that have been identified as one of the problems of the supernovae, but this is still a prototype and the various contacts of journalists have always been necessarily brief.
The company is not yet advancing with commercialization dates or with prices, even for the tri-fold, the smartphone model that folds in three and that had already been anticipated last year. This clearly shows that the foldable concept can be applied to devices larger than a smartphone, creating a new category and applying the hinge technology DragonHinge and ButterflyHinge.
In this way it is possible to transform a 6.65 inch screen into a 10 inch display with a 20.8: 9 ratio, with 3K resolution. the first equipment with two hinges, which work and show a minimum interval between screens.
This model also has no date yet to reach the market, nor price, but Stefan Streit promises for the first half of next year news on the market.
The problem will be the price. With foldable smartphones costing close to 2,500 euros, like Huawei's Mate XS or Samsung Galaxy Fold, TCL wants to ensure that the technology is more accessible and aims at 1,000 euros. And for that, I need to take some steps in the massification and production of flexible screens.
