We thought that Microsoft’s Project Andromeda — the foldable tablet/phone that will compete with Samsung’s Galaxy X — was going to use two separate screens. But according to this new patent, the Redmond company may use a single flexible display just like Samsung or Huawei.
Credit: Windows Central
The patent is highly detailed, showing very granular schematics of the mechanical devices invented by Microsoft for this technology. This may indicate that, most likely, these are designs that are already working in prototype form at some secret lab in some secret Surface hardware design lab.
The diagrams in the patent follow on the heels of Samsung’s own foldable patent device which, in theory, may debut next year with an undisclosed, but very high, price tag. They show a mechanism that allows to manage a flexible display, with a method designed to prevent damaging the display where it folds.
Credit: Windows Central
According to the patent, without this mechanism the display will feel mushy, something that Samsung also pointed out in their own patent for the Galaxy X. Like the Korean mechanism, Microsoft’s patent will hold the screen in place mechanically, making it feel solid rather than getting pushed down by any pressure exerted by your finger or pen.
2019 may very well be the year of the foldable thingamajig, and I’m all for that.
Cover photo credit: David Breyer
