Folding Surface Phone Teased In New Microsoft Patent

Megalith

Megalith

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Microsoft appears to be taking the plunge into foldable devices, and many are hoping these patent diagrams allude to what a future Surface device will look like and what it’ll be capable of. There are a number of potential designs shown, some of which hint at phones with screens that slide out, effectively transforming them into tablets.

Microsoft has patented a folding, flexible smartphone which could open out into a far more practical tablet, potentially teasing a possible Surface Phone form-factor. The patent, granted earlier this month, describes a “Mobile Computing Device having a flexible hinge structure” or, in other words, a portable gadget the size of a smartphone when collapsed, but which can be opened up for a far larger interface. Indeed, Microsoft actually has multiple designs on the same core theme. One potential form factor, for instance, comprises of two or three hinged panels. Joined along the longer edges of each rectangular section, they would unfold to make a device with double or even triple the screen space of a similarly-sized smartphone. By using a flexible display, the screen would be able to stretch around those hinges and, when opened, offer an uninterrupted panel.
 
I have seen a video of that not long ago. However, as much as I love Microsoft products in general, I will believe it when I can actually get it. Lately, they have been killing off some fantastic hardware ideas that they just did not bother fixing and that was that. :( (Band 2, Lumia phones.)
 
If I can get the performance of a low end surface book in a phone with a portable dock like scenario running full windows 10 I might have a use for it. I honestly need something low powered for work that run windows 10 that's highly portable. Functioning as a phone is double duty for me and I would consider having 2 phone on me then.
 
So long as the screen isn't prone to failure after a few hundred or thousand folds these phone would be great.
 
When will Microsoft get it? People don't want Windows on their phone! It doesn't matter how innovative the design is, if it runs Windows it's not going to sell as a phone.
 
Zareek said:
When will Microsoft get it? People don't want Windows on their phone! It doesn't matter how innovative the design is, if it runs Windows it's not going to sell as a phone.
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While not a big market, something like this that's Windows x86 compatible I think could eek out a niche for itself.
 
I'll wait for the Android version, made the mistake of getting a budget Dell Tablet with windows instead of Android now it sits in a draw and is never used.
 
A fold-out larger screen running some variant of Win10 (NOT tied to mobile app store, if so)...I could get behind that.
 
There's a reason why folding phones disappeared. Folding phones themselves were a compromise tech to cram the old larger electronics into a smaller space while at the same time protecting the screens and keyboard from accidental presses.

Smartphones have insanely strong glass screens now and they turn off and lock the screens automatically. This eliminates the #1 issue with folding phones: mechanical failure.
 
I'm not comfortable with this type of patents. Going through the doc, it seems like a "this is a great idea and we'd definitely love to implement it if we ever figure out how" patent. I don't think patents should be used to "reserve" ideas until some way to create them appears. I think they should be used only to protect those who figure out how to create the thing. That's how the "race for progress" happens: when lots of competitors try to get a cool idea to actually work before everyone else so that they can patent the method with which they got it to work. Not when someone makes a vague patent and says, "when someone figures out how to do this, we've got dibs!"

I understand why MS did it; everyone is doing it. I just don't think they should be accepted at such an immaterial stage.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
There's a reason why folding phones disappeared. Folding phones themselves were a compromise tech to cram the old larger electronics into a smaller space while at the same time protecting the screens and keyboard from accidental presses.

Smartphones have insanely strong glass screens now and they turn off and lock the screens automatically. This eliminates the #1 issue with folding phones: mechanical failure.
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But I can't carry a 7"+ tablet in my pocket, so...

Foldable OLED screens could be pretty awesome in the smartphone arena, if done right.
 
MavericK said:
But I can't carry a 7"+ tablet in my pocket, so...

Foldable OLED screens could be pretty awesome in the smartphone arena, if done right.
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While true, do you want to take a 4" folded phone, unfold it and press an 8" phone to your face? :p

I could see this is the phone piece is only active on one screen at a time so you only unflip it when you need it. The hinge will still be a point of failure, but I could see this working if they are using the same hinge design from the Surface Book Laptop they recently released.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
While true, do you want to take a 4" folded phone, unfold it and press an 8" phone to your face? :p

I could see this is the phone piece is only active on one screen at a time so you only unflip it when you need it. The hinge will still be a point of failure, but I could see this working if they are using the same hinge design from the Surface Book Laptop they recently released.
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I was thinking of external screen, usable as a phone while folded, then can fold out into a tablet.
 
Windows x86, with a reasonable dock (in both price and form factor) would be a win for those of us in the tech sector. I love my Surface Pro 4, but for an onsite visit to a manufacturing facility, any reduction in devices I have to tote around is a welcome blessing. I don't mind spending the money for quality gear, as evidenced by my SP4 and my Nexus 6P, as long as the quality is there. I am eager to see if MS will be able to deliver a device that isn't so large as to be unusable as a phone, but when opened/deployed/what have you, is large enough to be usable as a tablet. Further, while I am sure USB C will be the order of the day, there needs to be a small dock that still has solid connectivity (I recognize that I will have to carry a usb-serial adapter, I accepted that fact a few years ago). Delicate balance, but I look forward to seeing it.
 
pretty sure that is a design patent or process patent. Those are limited to exactly what you see and still can not use prior art. The ribbon cable, like in your printer, is likely what they looked at in designing it but it is very likely the paid attention to prior art since many companies are simply public domaining any technology that is questionable thinking that protects them from litigation. If you use someone else's ip and try to public domain it, you fail under tort as you are trying to convert it to unrecoverable assets. IP you clearly own and move parts to public domain is one thing. Like tesla took their technology and public domain'd it so that companies could use it for competition preventing any question of monopoly. If it was found they did not have the right to the technology they could be held liable for removing the ability for redress. My guess is no one is going to challenge them since it moves the auto industry forward. Much the way no one is going to challenge the public domain'ing of the sodium salt reactors, because both the energy industry needs the basic concept and aerospace industry needs the basic concept as options to allow for healthy competition. When I looked into the sodium salt reactors they were thousands of years old as water boilers in norway. So the department of energy simply treated them like prior art even if they were not used as power plants so to speak.

Another good example is anoids. They are the basic concept that makes capacitors work but there are dozen of companies that take that basic concept in different directions and builds on it from there. The basic air foil is called a wing on a plane with control surfaces is public domain but many companies try to build on that concept.
 
Form the designers of the surface with features like 7 generations worth of the same terrible and broken avastar wifi/bluetooth chip, sleep that sometimes works, sealed chassis with dying or degraded batteries, and cracked metal cases and screen glass at stress points. But hey at least it looks slick for the first 60 days...
 
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