Having seen the efforts made by other manufacturers to make folding 'phones a reality, I think they are approaching it from the wrong direction.
Instead of trying to make the screen “glass” fold, which requires the screen to be so thin that it can be very easily damaged, why not fit two thin, real glass screens, one on the upper half of the body above the hinge and one on the bottom half of the body below the hinge? These screens could then be mounted so that as the 'phone is opened up they slide towards the hinge and each other. When the 'phone is fully opened they could finish so close to one another (possibly touching one another) that the gap between the bottom pixels of the top screen and the top pixels of the bottom screen leaves no more than a millimetre or so of space in the display. The advantages would be a far more robust device. The speaker, selfie camera and sensors could be placed in a housing which slides into position as the top screen moves down, with the microphone in a similar position under the bottom screen.
I’ve drawn a rough sketch to try and illustrate my suggestions, but I’m no artist so it may not make a lot of sense.
My inspiration is the mechanism for the screen and keyboard from the Psion Series 5 pocket computer. If you look at how the screen and keyboard slide on that. Imagine replacing the keyboard with a second screen. Then imagine that concept in a 'phone similar to the original Motorola Razr, that’s what I have in my mind.
The Psion Series 5 was designed to sit on a desk when opened, rather than be handheld so the screen slides from the middle of the body. For a 'phone I would imagine that the top and bottom screens would be better to slide towards the centre hinge, but I hope you will understand what I’m trying to suggest.
If the next product out is a sliding, two screened carbon fibre, folding 'phone, I expect a heavy discount on the price!
