As 2019 draws to a close, one of the highlights of the year from a mobile technology perspective has to be the advent of foldability that started to become a fixture across the industry this year.
By Andy Meek
Consumer electronics giants from around the world, from Apple to Samsung as well as Chinese brands like Huawei and Xiaomi, have all experimented with foldable tech in one form or another, be it by securing patents for a design, tinkering behind the scenes, and in some cases releasing a full-fledged device like a foldable smartphone.
Samsung has arguably been among the most aggressive along these lines, thanks to its release this fall of the Galaxy Fold foldable smartphone and the promise of additional foldable smartphone releases being prepped for 2020. While all that goes on, meanwhile, Samsung is also toiling away on another piece of foldable tech — a tablet.
That’s according to a design patent Samsung Electronics filed with The Hague International Design System in May of this year (which was approved earlier this month). The application includes, along with the description, about 35 images showing three different tablet variants, and Dutch tech news site LetsGoDigital has prepared a color rendering of the tablet in both a closed and open state based on the patent details which you can check out below:
Intriguingly, the patent application is headed with a title that refers to a “mobile telephone,” which is why the team at LetsGoDigital describes the image you see above as essentially a big, tablet-sized foldable phone. One that folds along a horizontal axis and which, when open, lets the user enjoy a pretty wide screen.
There’s also no front display of any kind when the device is closed, making it sort of resemble a 3DS. More
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