OK, so we’ve already gotten foldable phones and we are back living in the future. Cool.
But it seems it’s not going to stop with smartphones. No, no, we’ve already seen laptop manufacturers fiddle with folding screen tech. Most recently, Asus presented a new “Zenbook 17 Fold”, which is shaped like a 17-inch tablet, but is actually a tablet. It just happens to be all covered by a screen, which folds through the middle.
Zenbook 17 Fold OLED
The tech community’s reaction to these new “all-screen” laptops is mixed. Most simply ask “Why?” — since people will prefer to use said laptop with a physical keyboard instead, that lower half of the screen seems like it’ll just inflate product pricing without providing much use.
The many ways to use a Zenbook 17 Fold
Samsung has another idea
It seems Samsung is also toying with the idea of a foldable laptop, but it’s coming at it from a different angle. Instead of reinventing how we use laptops and stretching the screen all the way to the keyboard area, Sammy is simply asking the question — “What if we just fold it twice?”.
Samsung foldable laptop patent
The keyboard portion of the laptop is split through the middle, allowing for a folding hinge to be place there, and the screen makes use of Samsung’s folding OLED expertise to also collapse inwards. As a result, you get a square-shaped piece of high-tech kit that’s much more portable than a regular laptop.
Will this be useful?
Now, patents are not guarantees that Samsung is actually working on this. It may have just been an idea that popped up in a brainstorm session and Sammy thought was good enough to explore further.
So, what say you — yay or nay?
