According to the China Patent Publication Announcement of the State Intellectual Property Office, Huawei today announced a patent for “folding screen equipment”. The patent was applied for on February 21, 2023. The applicant is Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., and the inventors are Huang Bo, Zha Peng, Wang Yanxin, Pang Dong, and Yu Weidong.
The key points summary are as follows:
This application provides a folding screen device, including a first housing, a second housing, a third housing, a first hinge, a second hinge and a flexible screen;
The opposite ends of the first hinge are connected to the first housing and the second housing respectively, the opposite ends of the second hinge are connected to the second housing and the third housing respectively, and the flexible screen is connected to the first housing and the third housing respectively. The second shell and the third shell are connected;
The first hinge can deform so that the first housing is folded or unfolded relative to the second housing,
The second hinge can deform so that the second housing is folded or unfolded relative to the third housing;
The thickness of the third housing is greater than the thickness of the first housing and/or the thickness of the second housing, and the thickness of the first housing is different from the thickness of the second housing.
The multiple shells can have unequal thicknesses, which reduces the thickness of the device in the folded state and makes it lighter, thereby providing users with a better grip.
Huawei stated that in the unfolded state, the screen ratio of the folding screen device cannot be well adapted to many application scenarios (such as playing videos, playing games, reading e-books, reading papers, etc.). Take video playback as an example. The ratio of the video is generally 16:9. However, in the unfolded state, the screen ratio of many folding screen devices is close to 1:1, so the user experience is not good. On the other hand, in the folded state, the folding screen device is relatively thick and does not feel good when held by the user. In summary, existing folding screen devices still have room for further improvement.
In this patent, the multiple casings can have different thicknesses, so that the folding screen device can be made thinner, which reduces the thickness of the folding screen device in the folded state and also makes the folding screen device lighter. It can provide users with a better grip feel.
In February this year, Taiwanese media such as “Economic Daily” and “Science and Technology News” published articles saying that Huawei is secretly developing a new “tri-fold screen mobile phone” (Z-fold phone). It has already begun large-scale stocking for this purpose and is expected to be launched as soon as this year. Coming out in the second quarter. This phone may adopt a Z-shaped (or S-shaped) form. The folded screen size of the phone is about the same as that of an ordinary smartphone, about 6.4 inches. The panel supplier of Huawei’s folding screen phone may be BOE.
The report also stated that since the hinge is the most critical component of the folding machine, Huawei is said to have expanded its material preparation orders to the local “bearing duo” Zhaoli and Fusda, making them the big winners of Huawei’s three-folding screen mobile phone. In addition, panel manufacturers will also directly benefit.
