Foldable smartphones are finally a reality but are quite limited right now. So far, Samsung has the segment under its belt and is the only company pushing attractive foldable phones right now. While Motorola also has a presence in the segment, its RAZR is more an appeal to nostalgia than something that will make you happy due to its specs. Other companies are set to make their entrance in this segment as the quality of materials is finally improving. We’re expecting some brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo to bring their own foldable smartphones. Apparently, the latter is studying different concepts for future foldable phones. Today, a new patent emerged suggesting a device with an outward hinge at the bottom and a display that extends to the back panel.
The new patent surfaced at CNIPA (Chinese National Intellectual Property Administration) with sketches from all sides. It reveals vivo plans to put five cameras on the back in an X formation. The square-ish camera island will bring at least one camera with a periscope lens suggesting powerful zoom capabilities. There is also room for the LED flash that sits in a tiny strep on the right side. It quite resembles the one on the Vivo X50 Pro. Unfortunately, Patents doesn’t really suggest that a new device is coming. But this is a prove that Vivo is already playing with this concept.
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Vivo foldable phone shows a very unusual challenging build
The device design has a very challenging build, so we’re curious to see if Vivo will make a big entrance in the segment with a unique device like this one. Unfortunately, it does not look like something that is consumer-friendly. The first foldable phones came with +$2000 price tags, and we’re not expecting their price to reach standard phones this year. The more advanced design and the more advanced the build process become, the more expensive these devices may become. Of course, some already-established concepts will likely become cheap in the coming years, but this doesn’t seem to be the case of Vivo’s design.
Worth noting that anything coming from Vivo, also indicates that more companies will join this segment. The Chinese brand belongs to the huge BBK conglomerate which also owns Realme, Oppo, and OnePlus. These companies usually share technologies with each other. So if one company manages to prepare a foldable device, the other one will rapidly get the resources to do the same.
