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Samsung's folding phone breaks for reviewers

bbc.com

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Re: Samsung's folding phone breaks for reviewers

#51

Post by tooltalk »

jsiepkes wrote: post #21
Traubenfuchs wrote: post #18

This is the direct result of rushing to offer something that can be called innovation after years of a draught. But foldable phones are as much a gimmick as 3D cameras. Phone innovation is indeed dead -for the customer, that's ok, but for the vendors it's a nightmare.

After Royole came with the first bendable screens there has been a tremendous pressure among the big players like Samsung and LG to display their technological superiority with bendable stuff. Problem is they are simply not as far as Royole at the moment.

Are you saying that Royole's foldable is more mature? My understanding is that both Royole and Huawei announced their foldable without any release date slightly ahead of Samsung, just so that they could steal Samsung's spotlight.

I don't know much about Royole, but Huawei's foldable comes from BOE and BOE is many years behind Samsung both in mobile OLED and foldable. BOE is accused of copying/stealing Samsung display tech.

Re: Samsung's folding phone breaks for reviewers

#52

Post by tooltalk »

LeonM wrote: post #11
Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #3

>The device the BBC handled, incidentally, was taken away by Samsung shortly after filming was finished, so our team hasn’t had a chance to see these issues for ourselves. This seems a red flag, when devices involving mechanical innovation the reviewers should insist on long term review & shouldn't term anything less as a review.

There can be many reasons they took the devices with them after filming. The explanation can be as simple as Samsung UK not having enough samples for all the journalists in London.

or I speculate Samsung didn't want to expose their folding implementation to competitors, who would rush to release "me-too" copies, just before Samsung's release.

Re: Samsung's folding phone breaks for reviewers

#53

Post by oliwarner »

There are a few ways of looking at this. Most of the more engineery-types are pointing out the inevitability of failure, the challenges trying to find a good enough substrate to mount a touchscreen stack on, and trying to protect an exposed external hinge from impact, and all that material engineering science stuff that's really clever... But well besides the point.

I can't even rationalise why anybody wants a folding screen.

This seems like a gimmick searching for a market, not an answer to demand. And if this was the lowest hanging fruit for R&D to develop the next generation of phones, I think we're finally facing real stagnation in the phone market. Screen pixel density exceeds eyesight. Battery density limits are as far as known science can push them. Storage is beyond what we can reasonably use. 4G is fast enough. They've made every size of phone between a stamp and a tablet. There's nothing left to do. Phones are as dead as the PC.

What's next?

Re: Samsung's folding phone breaks for reviewers

#54

Post by rasz »

Reason077 wrote: post #19
consp wrote: post #4

While not directly comparable, the flexible flat cables in flip phones took years to be 'good' enough to last the phone's lifetime and those moved as much as this thing is going to. This might just be a cause of early production models and early adopter problems and might work out later. Note: the flex cables are not bad per se as they are also used in cubesats for instance.

There is currently a widely reported issue with display backlight failures in MacBook Pros, apparently caused by a failure-prone flex cable which can’t be replaced: https://ifixit.org/blog/12903/

Its a non material dependent design defect, cable is too short.

Re: Samsung's folding phone breaks for reviewers

#55

Post by hprotagonist »

oliwarner wrote: post #53

There are a few ways of looking at this. Most of the more engineery-types are pointing out the inevitability of failure, the challenges trying to find a good enough substrate to mount a touchscreen stack on, and trying to protect an exposed external hinge from impact, and all that material engineering science stuff that's really clever... But well besides the point. I can't even rationalise why anybody wants a foldin…

anti-phone peripherals. Now that phones are the ubiquitous computers everyone has, we need a next tier down for persisting contact with less addiction!

watches, wireless earbuds.

Re: Samsung's folding phone breaks for reviewers

#56

Post by solarkraft »

no1youknowz wrote: post #40

I'm really excited to see where foldable phones go. I know it's the first version, but looking at unbox therapy and their review. I kept on seeing the fold. [0] If you look at reviews of the Huawei Mate X like this one [1]. Sure it's a preview version and a bit shiny, but looks much better than what Samsung has released. IMHO Huawei has built a better foldable phone. Seems samsung has rushed this out to be the first…

Samsung might have the more impressive technology (well, we thought that before this), but Huawei seems to have thought about the concept a bit more (even though the technology is easier). It just makes so much more sense to fold to the outside.

Re: Samsung's folding phone breaks for reviewers

#57

Post by kalado »

oliwarner wrote: post #53

There are a few ways of looking at this. Most of the more engineery-types are pointing out the inevitability of failure, the challenges trying to find a good enough substrate to mount a touchscreen stack on, and trying to protect an exposed external hinge from impact, and all that material engineering science stuff that's really clever... But well besides the point. I can't even rationalise why anybody wants a foldin…

I would like a folding screen for the same reason as everybody else. You can put it in your jeans pocket. Want to watch a move on the train? Pull out your fold and you have a pretty decent size tv. Same for everything else.

Only if it doesn't break of course.

Re: Samsung's folding phone breaks for reviewers

#58

Post by sandworm101 »

oliwarner wrote: post #53

There are a few ways of looking at this. Most of the more engineery-types are pointing out the inevitability of failure, the challenges trying to find a good enough substrate to mount a touchscreen stack on, and trying to protect an exposed external hinge from impact, and all that material engineering science stuff that's really clever... But well besides the point. I can't even rationalise why anybody wants a foldin…

>> They've made every size of phone between a stamp and a tablet. There's nothing left to do.

Really? My dream phone doesn't exist yet. I want a phone that is reliable, that lasts more than a few days on a single charge. I want one with two USB connections. I want one with a proper headphone jack, and a speaker that is loud enough to hear properly while driving (without a mount). For these features I am willing to trade size/weight. This phone doesn't exist yet. Until it does there remains room for improvement.

Re: Samsung's folding phone breaks for reviewers

#59

Post by ceejayoz »

dragonwriter wrote: post #31
burgerzzz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how this not a flip phone with a screen on both ends?

A flip phone with a screen on both ends doesn't open up to one continuous touchscreen.

Neither does Samsung's, apparently. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Samsung's folding phone breaks for reviewers

#60

Post by DanTheManPR »

solarkraft wrote: post #56
no1youknowz wrote: post #40

I'm really excited to see where foldable phones go. I know it's the first version, but looking at unbox therapy and their review. I kept on seeing the fold. [0] If you look at reviews of the Huawei Mate X like this one [1]. Sure it's a preview version and a bit shiny, but looks much better than what Samsung has released. IMHO Huawei has built a better foldable phone. Seems samsung has rushed this out to be the first…

Samsung might have the more impressive technology (well, we thought that before this), but Huawei seems to have thought about the concept a bit more (even though the technology is easier). It just makes so much more sense to fold to the outside.

The Mate X concept seems much cleaner, with a larger true tablet mode and no redundant screens. It remains to be seen whether the screens can survive normal without getting scuffed up or scratched. I had the same skepticism when the iPhone first came out, but glass screens have proven to be more durable than I thought they could be. Maybe these folding screens will surprise me too?
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