Motorola created the world’s first flip phone in 1996, and it’s a legacy the company is evidently keeping in mind with its latest smartphone patent.
This new patent, published by WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) a few weeks ago, illustrates a new kind of revolutionary flip phone: one that flips outwards instead of inwards, creating a both front-and-back display.
One of the coolest things about Motorola’s concept seems to be the integration of just a single camera module, used for both selfies and regular photos. This camera module would be housed in a moderate-sized bump, as the illustrations show.
Motorola new flip phone patent
One of the minor downsides to this, of course, is a half-sized “viewfinder” through which you’d have to position regular photos, as the phone would have to be in folded position to take them.
As we all know, the main deal breaker with most flip phones on the market is the insufferable crease where the display folds along the middle (as well as the formidable price tag). The gentle display curvature in Motorola’s design seems like it would prevent any single folding crease lines from ever appearing in the long term.
