Tri-Foldable Phones: Can Huawei's Innovation Lead a New Era in the Foldable Phone Market?

Tri-Foldable Phones: Can Huawei's Innovation Lead a New Era in the Foldable Phone Market?To stand out in the fierce market competition, manufacturers are constantly exploring new forms of foldable phones. Among them, tri-foldable phones, as the latest breakthrough in foldable technology, have become a hot topic in the market recently

Tri-Foldable Phones: Can Huawei's Innovation Lead a New Era in the Foldable Phone Market?

Since Samsung and Huawei first launched foldable phones in 2019, this emerging category has quickly become a dark horse in the global smartphone market, continuously attracting user attention. While foldable phones were initially met with controversy due to their high prices and immature technology, they have gradually entered the public eye and become a choice for more and more consumers as technology has advanced and costs have decreased.

To stand out in the fierce market competition, manufacturers are constantly exploring new forms of foldable phones. Among them, tri-foldable phones, as the latest breakthrough in foldable technology, have become a hot topic in the market recently. It is reported that Huawei is about to release a new tri-foldable phone, which adopts a dual-hinge design combining inward and outward folding, resulting in a "Z"-shaped folded form.

Huawei's unique design concept for tri-foldable phones is not entirely original. As early as 2019, TCL launched a foldable phone prototype using a "Z"-shaped folding scheme, and Samsung's FlexS also adopted a similar design. This design, with its thin and compact body, larger display size, and flexible application scenarios, has attracted considerable attention in the market.

Besides the "Z"-shaped scheme, there has also been the emergence of the "G"-shaped folding scheme in recent years. This scheme uses two inward folding hinges to fold the screens on both sides towards the middle, creating a "G"-shaped form when folded. Due to the lack of an external screen, this design prioritizes screen protection but offers less operational convenience than the "Z"-shaped scheme.

In addition to foldable screen technology, rollable screen technology has also become a focal point for major manufacturers to develop. In November 2020, OPPO released the OPPO X 2021 rollable screen concept phone, which features a freely retractable, variable-sized, stepless OLED flexible rollable screen, providing users with a new screen experience. LGRollable and TCL have also released similar rollable screen products.

However, some manufacturers are combining foldable screen technology with rollable screen technology to create more innovative products. Although this "foldable + rollable" scheme can offer a larger screen size, its complex process, high cost, and challenges in manufacturing difficulty, repair costs, and weight control also raise concerns.

Looking back at the development of foldable phones, although the sales performance of this category of devices has been steadily increasing, its overall product positioning remains somewhat awkward. While foldable phones offer larger screen sizes, when watching videos, they fail to provide a larger display area while maintaining the aspect ratio. Additionally, the crease, weight, and durability also hinder user choice.

In this context, finding the right positioning and target products has become a critical issue in the development of foldable phones. Huawei's upcoming tri-foldable phone is rumored to be positioned as a tablet product. Is this positioning viable? Can it lead a new era in the foldable phone market? There is currently no clear answer.

However, as foldable screen technology continues to advance, and users demand both portability and large-screen experiences, the foldable phone market will continue to experience rapid growth. The arrival of Huawei's tri-foldable phone may bring more innovation and breakthroughs to this field, providing more possibilities for the future development of foldable phones.

Will this tri-foldable phone be able to break through the limitations of existing foldable phones and become the new market leader? We can only wait and see.