According to Ross Young of DisplaySearch, a good source of information regarding smartphone screen tech in the past few months, 2021 will be a great year for foldables. Specifically, the second half of next year.
That's when, Young says, we'll see such devices launched by Oppo, vivo, Xiaomi, as well as Google. That's on top of Samsung's expected Galaxy Z Fold3, Z Flip2, and Z Flip Lite. On that point, Young insists that the much rumored Fold3 Lite won't happen, instead the 'affordable foldable' will be of the Flip variety. We'll have to wait and see.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 coming with S Pen, new ultra-thin glass in June 2021
A new report from Korea claims that Samsung will push the Galaxy Z Fold3 from a Fall announcement to June of 2021. More importantly, the report claims that the Galaxy Z Fold3 will not only support an S Pen, but have it embedded into the device's body, like on the Galaxy Note series.
Samsung will reportedly be able to make the S Pen work on the flexible screen on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 thanks to second generation Ultra thin glass. It will reportedly be hard enough so as to not be marked by the S Pen.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 will also use an under display selfie camera for an uninterrupted display experience. Samsung reportedly though about a pop-up camera on its next foldable, but decided against it for durability reasons.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip Lite may be on the way
Foldable smartphones may or may not be the future, but one thing's for sure: they're still very expensive at the moment. In the past, we heard Samsung was working on a Galaxy Z Fold Lite that would be cheaper than the Z Fold 2, but now it seems that project may have been shelved.
The information comes from Ross Young, founder of DSCC and frequent purveyor of foldable-related rumors (with a decent track record no less). He says he hasn't heard about the Z Fold Lite in a while, which may indicate it was shelved.
Not all hope is lost for a more affordable foldable, though. That's because recently Young has been hearing about a Galaxy Z Flip Lite, which would supposedly aim to be cheaper than the Z Flip. Interestingly, the Lite model will keep the Ultra Thin Glass employed in the Z Flip.
Oppo X 2021 rollable concept phone
The biggest wow factor with this device is that it doesn’t have a fixed display size as it can adjust between 6.7 and 7.4-inches in diagonal which presents new opportunities for developers and users. Oppo gives the example of clicking a video link which then results in the screen adjusting for the aspect ratio on its own.
In its basic form, the display is 6.7-inches. It’s an OLED panel with a proprietary Warp Track high-strength screen laminate part of which sits below the actual display and is just 0.1mm thick at its thinnest point. We don’t get specifics on the actual material on the outside layer of the display but it's presumably some sort of plastic.
Thanks to its dual rolling motors underneath the display Oppo managed to achieve a zero-crease screen, something current foldables are still trying to overcome. The motors can retract and extend the display with equally distributed force on both halves.
Going back to the other companies, it's perhaps no surprise that the Chinese players are in the game, but Google will launch one foldable Pixel too. Between the three of them, Oppo, vivo, and Xiaomi will out a total of four foldable devices.
While Young uses the phrase "foldable smartphones", we have to wonder whether this list may also include a rollable model, akin to the Oppo X 2021 concept. Or better put, we're daydreaming about that possibility over here. Perhaps in a year the technology will be mature enough to be put through mass production. We can only hope.
