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A few days ago, a reliable industry insider claimed that Huawei is readying a tri-fold foldable smartphone. The Chinese firm is allegedly on track to launch the world’s first device that folds in two places. No other company is anywhere close to it in tri-fold development. It appears Huawei is toying with another foldable idea, not as revolutionary as a tri-fold, but certainly, a design element we could see on its future flip phones.
Huawei patent hints at a new design for future flip foldables
Huawei is one of the few experienced players in the foldable segment. The company has been making foldables for several years. Like Samsung, Oppo, and others, it makes book-style and clamshell (flip) foldables. Its most recent flip model, the Pocket 2, debuted in China in February 2024. Like its predecessors, the device has a circular cover display of the same size as the rear camera housing. The circular rings are aligned vertically.
Newly spotted design patents from Huawei suggest the company is mulling redesigning its flip foldables. Filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), the patents uncovered by 91Mobiles show five different cover display designs. Two of them have circular screens, while three have rectangular cover displays. For the circular design, Huawei patented horizontal and diagonal alignments.
The latter design also shows a bigger cover display. It certainly looks elegant and very much practical. In fact, neither design is impractical. We don’t see why Huawei shouldn’t design its new Pocket like this. We have reservations about the aesthetics of the rectangular cover displays, though. Like the circular design, Huawei’s patents show vertical, horizontal, and diagonal alignments, the latter with a bigger screen than the camera housing.
However, a rectangular camera housing and cover display isn’t aesthetically as pleasing as circular ones. Of course, these are just patents and Huawei’s designers would consider everything before picking the next design evolution for its flip phones. If it decides to shake things up, we might see the company pick one of the two circular designs discussed in these patents. It’s too bad that Huawei’s foldables aren’t available globally.
Huawei is rising from the ashes
Once a global leader in the smartphone industry, Huawei is now primarily a China-only company. The US sanctions severed its access to cutting-edge smartphone technologies, forcing it to rely on domestic innovations. With no access to Google Mobile Services, an integral part of the Android experience, Huawei struggles to compete in markets outside China. That said, the firm is growing fast, supported by a robust Chinese supply chain. Only time will tell if it can reclaim its former position in the global market.