While foldable screen phones have not yet dropped to the 2,000 yuan price range, tri-fold phones are coming. Are you ready to try them out?
Entering the second half of 2024, there are more and more news about three-fold screen mobile phones, which also means that the first three-fold mobile phone is likely to meet us this year, which will become another milestone in the development of smartphones. A few days ago, when Yu Chengdong was delivering the Enjoy S9 to car owners, some car owners asked when they could buy Huawei’s three-fold screen mobile phone. Yu Chengdong said that it would be next month. After that, when everyone thought that Huawei was going to lead the way, it was unexpectedly stolen by another domestic brand, Transsion, which was the first to show its own three-fold product, which set off quite a stir on the Internet.
Transsion’s three-fold product is called Tecno Phantom Ultimate 2. Its folding hinge has a lifespan of up to 300,000 times. The screen size is 6.48 inches when folded and 10 inches when unfolded, which is almost the same size as an iPad. Moreover, the thickness of Tecno Phantom Ultimate 2 is only 11mm when folded, which is comparable to the thickness of the current mainstream large folding screen mobile phones. This is very commendable. Unfortunately, Tecno Phantom Ultimate 2 is just a concept phone and cannot be mass-produced yet. It can be regarded as a muscle show by Transsion.
The difference of Huawei is that he did not first come up with a concept video to attract the attention of the entire network, but was ready to throw a thunderbolt directly to the market in September, which felt like the pioneer plan of the Mate60 series. At present, there are not many exposures about Huawei’s three-fold screen. It’s just that there were previous photos of Yu Chengdong using it on an airplane, and it was very blurry. The specific parameters and configurations need to pay attention to the subsequent press conference. If Huawei’s three-fold screen is released in September, it may mean that the Mate70 series will be postponed, or it may be scheduled for October. After all, it involves the increase in the amount of new Kirin chips and the adaptation of many apps such as WeChat under pure Hongmeng. In this way, Huawei’s three-fold screen will directly compete with Apple’s iPhone 16 series in September. Although the form is different, if the same 10,000 yuan, will you choose iPhone 16 Pro Max or Huawei’s three-fold screen mobile phone?
Today, there is a topic that has attracted the attention of many netizens, #Will three-fold screen mobile phones become mainstream in the future#. In fact, from the perspective of technological innovation, there is a high probability that it will become mainstream. It is just a matter of time. The author believes that this time span may take more than ten years or even longer. Looking back from the release of the first folding screen mobile phone to the present, six or seven years have passed. The price has gradually dropped from the 10,000 yuan level to the 4,000 to 5,000 yuan price range, and it is still achieved with the help of a small folding. The price of a pure large folding screen mobile phone is not low. Taking the newly released price as a reference, the cheapest one basically costs about 6,000 yuan, which is still a long way from the 3,000 yuan price range expected by many users. Basically, it can be seen that even by the end of this year, no manufacturer may release a large folding screen product priced at around 3,000 yuan.
For a large number of consumers at present, foldable screen mobile phones are still out of reach and far beyond their budget. According to the latest report, Huawei occupies half of the domestic foldable screen market, and its product strength and brand strength are very recognized. In addition, other domestic brands have also shown a trend of a hundred schools of thought. Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, and Honor are constantly pushing forward the innovation and development of foldable screens, and domestic users have a lot of choices. Looking at the global market, Samsung’s foldable screen has a high degree of recognition, but there is no news about the three-fold screen, and Apple has not yet launched a foldable screen product, and it may still not be available this year, which leaves a lot of room for domestic brands.
In addition, in recent years, the pace of domestic brands going overseas has been very good, and they have occupied a large share in many overseas markets. This is very important for promoting domestic folding screen mobile phones to the global market. When the scale is large enough, the cost can be reduced. When the cost is reduced and the sales volume is increased, the brand will have enough funds to develop three-folding screen mobile phones, otherwise it is easy to fall into the quagmire of funds in the internal volume. And with this wave of Huawei and Transsion’s efforts in three-folding screen mobile phones, domestic manufacturers will also usher in a new wave of development in the folding screen market. I believe that other brands will follow up in the future, and it will not be too late, but the final price may still be more than 10,000 yuan.
Of course, from this perspective, it is not difficult to find that domestic brands have played a very important role in promoting the development of foldable screen mobile phones. The innovation of core hinge technology has increased the number of folding times of foldable screen mobile phones, and the flatness of the screen has gradually improved; the foldable screen imaging that was criticized in the early stage has now quickly pulled together with the imaging flagship, with Leica, periscope telephoto, super macro, etc.; the battery is constantly increasing, the addition of wireless charging, the lightness is constantly getting lighter and thinner, and more and more foldable screen mobile phones have brought the good feel of straight-screen phones. It can be said that in this battle to seize the high ground of foldable screen mobile phones, domestic brands have made the global market re-recognize Chinese brands, which has the flavor of Chinese flow and top flow. If you look at it horizontally, it is very similar to the current domestic new energy intelligent networked cars. This is like two Dinghai magic needles, deeply rooted in the market, making future technological competition more interesting.
Going back to the three-fold screen mobile phone itself, if you observe carefully, you will find that from the perspective of size, it has completed the closed loop in the era of multi-screen interconnection. Small screens include bracelets and watch products, larger ones are candy-bar phones and small folding screens, and further up are large folding screen products, plus the upcoming three-fold screen products, the screen size is increasing. At this point, the three-fold is basically the ceiling size of the mobile phone, and above that is the tablet. The size of the three-fold screen and the small tablet is already comparable. Now the size of some tablets has reached nearly 13 inches, which is the lower limit of laptops. In this way, this series of terminals constitutes a very rich choice, allowing the ecosystem to achieve a better closed loop.
In general, the three-fold screen mobile phone is an inevitable node for mobile phone technological innovation, and it is also a feasible answer given by manufacturers to explore the future form of mobile phones. For this answer, it is not a concept machine that is put on the shelf in the laboratory and then shown to users, but a product that can be mass-produced and can be bought by users, which is of great significance for the implementation of innovation. In fact, in my opinion, the three-fold screen is likely to coexist with the straight-screen mobile phone five years after it is launched on the market, and it cannot replace the value that the current straight-screen mobile phone brings to consumers. And as technology continues to move forward, the three-fold screen may just be a passing guest.
