The Galaxy Fold foldable smartphone isn’t just delayed, it’s also terribly ugly, but that’s the compromise early adopters will have to accept. The phone itself is a compromise because we’re in the early stages of foldables. That said, Huawei came up with a gorgeous foldable that looks a lot better than Samsung’s first handset.
And that’s probably because Huawei placed the foldable screen on the exterior, while the Fold’s main screen is found on the inside of the handset. That doesn’t mean Huawei isn’t considering Fold-like devices, though, and its patent for such a device already looks like a major improvement over Samsung’s foldable Galaxy.
Before we look at how Huawei wants to fix the Galaxy Fold design, let’s explain it.
The Galaxy Fold folds like a book, which means the main display is always protected. The phone also packs a secondary screen on the outside that lets the user interact with the handset for everything that doesn’t require a bigger screen. But that screen is very small compared to what’s available on most phones these days and has a strange aspect ratio. And let’s not even get into the way this thing looks when it’s folded.
The second annoying thing about the Fold when it comes to design is the side-notch area that houses the internal cameras, removing a chunky part of the screen.
Huawei’s patent, found by LetsGoDigital, shows a phone that looks a lot like the Mate X. But this foldable screen folds inwards, like the Galaxy Fold. The screen has absolutely no notch. Instead, the multi-lens camera module sits on the side, just like on the Mate X, which means the camera acts both as a selfie camera and as a primary camera, depending on what you need from it.
Just like the Fold, this Mate X 2 concept features a secondary display on the exterior, but this screen is a full edge-to-edge and corner-to-corner screen that could easily rival some of the current all-screen phones out there. And when folded, the phone has a lot more symmetry to it than the Galaxy Fold.
There’s no question this Mate X 2 concept looks a lot better than the Galaxy Fold, but can Huawei pull it off? Let’s not forget that the Chinese giant has also delayed the Mate X to conduct additional durability tests. No matter how good the Mate X looks, if the foldable screen can be ruined with ease, it’s going to fail.
Placing two large displays on either side of a thin frame is even more daring, which makes this Mate X 2 design a lot riskier. That said, we’re looking at patent documentation, so there’s no guarantee this product will ever see the light of day. By the way, Huawei also patented a foldable phone featuring a three-sided foldable screen that wraps around the phone. It’s safe to say the Chinese company is considering all sorts of foldable devices, but it will ultimately stick with the ones that make the most sense.
Samsung’s Galaxy Fold should be launched in the coming months, according to recent leaks (but we still don’t know exactly when), while the Mate X has been pushed back to September.
