Smartphone Trends That Will Mushroom In The Future

Huawei Mate Xs (Phone Arena) illustration

JAKARTA - In addition to qualified specifications, the evolution of smartphones is no longer fixated on monotonous designs. The presence of a folding screen cellphone seems to be a breakthrough in the gadget industry.

For example, Huawei, Mototola to Samsung, which have first marketed their superior products using folding screen technology. With an unusual design style from smartphones in general, the presence of a folding screen cellphone has its own charm.

Reporting from Howtogeek, glass is an object that is not flexible. As a result, manufacturers have had to develop polymer screens that are flexible enough to allow the phone to bend or roll.

Generally, folding screen phones have flexible OLED display capabilities and are made of polymer displays. A fiber layer inside which allows the cellphone screen to be folded.

Where the organic light-emitting diode screen (OLED screen) works through an electric current on the organic compound. This ultra thin and flexible OLED network is what reproduces colors.

Folding Screen Technology (Corning Gorilla Glass)

This trend appeared for the first time when, a vendor from China whose name is less pronounced, launched the world's first folding screen phone. Where the Flexpai products made by Royole Corporation were present for the first time at the CES 2019 event.

Suddenly the smartphone universe was shocked by the action of this manufacturer named Royole Technologies. After that, vendors such as Samsung, Huawei, Motorola began to attend and enliven this folding screen cellphone trend.

Ken Hyers, Director of Strategy Analytics, even predicts that the demand for folding screen phones will boom in 2025. Followed by other vendors who will compete to present new model phones.

"By 2025, every major player must have a folding screen mobile phone portfolio, including Apple," Hyers said as quoted by Ubergizmo.

Mobile Phone Manufacturers Competition

Until now, there are vendors who have released folding screen phones, namely Royole: Royole Fexpai, Samsung: Galaxy Fold, Galaxy Z Flip, Galaxy Z Fold 2, Huawei: Mate X, Mate Xs, Motorola: Razr, Escobar Inc: Escobar Fold 1, Escobar Fold 2, and Microsoft: Surface Duo.

Each vendor offers a unique folding screen mobile design style in their distinctive way, for example carrying a foldable (folded in or out) or a clamshell (folds from top to bottom).

Even Apple, which is often a trensetter, is starting to think of ways to present a foldable iPhone in the future. Although there has been no official announcement, the Cupertino-based company in the United States has started registering a patent design for a foldable iPhone.

Even so, Apple is known to be quite minimal in exploring its product designs. Even this year, the company founded by the late Steve Jobs has just released the iPhone 12 with the same design language as the previous model.

On the other hand, Oppo surprisingly introduced its newest concept cellphone model, namely the Oppo X 2021. Different from other vendors, Oppo is carrying the concept of a smartphone with a rollable screen, at the Oppo INNO Day 2020 event.

Even though it is still a prototype smartphone, the Oppo X 2021 technology is quite attractive to the world. Where this Smartphone is built with continuous OLED Display technology which can make a screen with the smallest size of 6.7 inches and enlarged to 7.4 inches.

Oppo itself is not sure when this new device will begin to be produced on the market. Given that this product is still a concept and needs to be further developed.

Oppo Concept Phone X 2021 (Oppo INNO Day 2020)

Prices are not cheap

It is common knowledge, if the price of a device will be very expensive because of the technology used. This line of flagship smartphones is also priced at a relatively expensive price.

Call it the first generation Samsung Galaxy Fold sold in Indonesia at around Rp. 30 million. The device that offers a new experience clearly attracts smartphone users in the market.

Not wanting to miss this moment, Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Galaxy Z Flip, which carry folding screen technology. The price of the new gadget is in the range of IDR 20 million to the most expensive variant of IDR 33 million.

Vendors such as Huawei with Mate Xs are also sold starting from IDR 39 million. Meanwhile, Motorola sells the Razr device at a price of US $ 1,399 or around Rp.20.8 million.

Apart from the low price, of course, the deal-breaker point of a device with flexible screen technology lies in its durability. Although some vendors claim the new cellphone is strong to be folded or opened and closed thousands of times.

However, the screen material and mechanisms that are carried on the smartphone are not fully flexible. Like the body, the battery, the chassis will still carry hard and inflexible materials, as summarized from Phone Arena.

Motorola Razr (doc. Motorola)

Call it the incident experienced by Samsung and Motorola, when they first launched their first folding screen smartphone. Where Samsung uses a special layer to protect the main screen, and if it is removed it will cause damage to the Galaxy Fold.

Motorola also had time to recall thousands of Razr units globally, when the hinge and flexible screen used on its smartphone cracked. The damage occurred when testers from CNET tested the Motorola Razr's screen for four hours with more than 27,000 folds.

In closing, if you are interested in advancing smartphone technology, you must be prepared to spend quite a bit of money, including maintenance and service costs if the purchased device is damaged. Even so, the increasingly dynamic smartphone trend will certainly be a special attraction in the future.