My crazy idea for a folding 'phone concept

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!

@MkStevo, great idea! Why waste energy and money on developing something that inherently is prone to fail?! You point out the actual and important feature that the manufacturers of folding devices are aiming for, a bigger screen in a smaller footprint. I like your idea of a micro ‚gap‘ between the two halves of the screen. The manufacturers should, instead of trying the nearly impossible with the folding glass, try to make the gap so thin that it is (almost) invisible. That might be an achievable goal, and it would still give the user a big screen.
My problem with a foldable phone is thickness when folded. Is it so desirable to have a foldable phone that you accept a thickness that is double that of today‘s phones? I would‘nt because then it bulges up my pocket in a different way, not by size but by its thickness. Not my kind of ideal…
Now, if you apply the same concept to a tablet (which one does carry around in a different way, i. e. not in shirt pocket etc.) then it makes sense! Imagine a tablet that doubles in size when opened! Like folded A5 and opened A4! I am so used to carry my iPad around in my hand, I have it with me all the time. But even if it is very lightweight and thin (iPad Air), I would love it to be even smaller in footprint. Then, I could carry (or stow) it even better!
How about that?!
Volker

Perhaps a foldable phone does not have to be twice as thick as a normal one. One halfth is just the display and f.e. GPU und CPU. Put the flat compnents into the flat halfth and the battery and camera into the thicker one. Such a smartphone made of Carbon would not be thicker and heavier than other companies flagships. I personally don´t need such a phone. But i would rather accept a 2 mm gap between the displays than having a device with a foldable display and extremely high costs in case of a display repair.

@Groundtorpedo, that is an idea. I agree it would be a good design to have as little as possible in the one half, to make every effort of keeping that half as slim as possible. But! I have yet to see a foldable that is not double the thickness of either half. It seems difficult… If I look into the innards of an iPhone, the battery extends into the upper half, the back camera needs a minimum thickness as well as the front camera. These are apparently not features that one can transfer into the lower half…
That is why I believe that it is more probable that we will have a foldable tablet
than a phone. I could live with that!
Volker

Don´t see the problem. A selfie-Cam does imho not need more than 5MP. That fits in a KAZAM Tornado 347 with 5,2 mm thickness. The Galaxy Fold is 16,1 mm thick. So there is still a lot “space” to build a f.e. 13 mm thin foldable phone.

Am just not sure that Carbon should invest in such a project.