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By Chris Smith, BGR
Samsung’s Galaxy Fold is far from being the success the company may have envisioned. Early review units unearthed several issues with the foldable phone’s screen, and Samsung had no choice but to delay the worldwide Galaxy Fold launch. But that doesn’t mean Samsung won’t make more foldable handsets in the future, or other types of smartphones. A recent discovery offers us more details about a brand new design Samsung may be developing: A phone with a wraparound display that doesn’t fold.
Dutch blog LetsGoDigital, which often uncovers smartphone-related patents from some of the biggest vendors out there, is at it again. This time around, the blog found a patent that was first filed in 2016 but awarded to Samsung only a few days ago. As you’re going to see in these images, we’re looking at a device featuring up to three usable screens, including a main one on the front, a secondary one on the back, and one on the side for notifications:
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| © Provided by Penske Media Corporation samsung-wraparound-display-patent-1 |
The purpose of a multi-screen phone such as the one seen in these images is to allow Samsung to remove the selfie camera from the front of the phone, and increase the size of the main display. If this sounds familiar, that’s because some Chinese smartphone vendors have already created such devices. The crucial difference between Samsung’s concept and those phones is that Samsung is also turning the top edge of the phone into a screen. Thus, the display would wrap around the top side, going all the way from the front to the back of the handset.
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A single camera module would sit on the back, and it would work both for regular pictures and selfies.
The patent also lists other details about phones featuring “multi-plan displays” such as the ability to use the two screens for real-time translation. Also, both the front and rear screens can operate when taking photos, so that the subjects can see instant previews of the shots. Finally, the edge display would show notifications from apps.
What’s interesting is that you’d be able to activate a screen by simply hovering your hand on top of it. Alternatively, you could use a stylus to activate one of the two bigger displays.
That said, Samsung’s smartphone patent doesn’t guarantee that Samsung will manufacture Galaxy-branded phones that look like the concepts seen here. After all, tech companies register countless patents every year, and not all of the innovations end up making it into commercial products.
