Sony Is Working On A Foldable Phone With A Host Of New Sensors
After a decade of smartphones with a rigid form factor, the year 2019 saw the launch of two visionary devices, the Galaxy Fold and the Huawei Mate X 5G. Although both the smartphones aim towards achieving the same goal i.e is packing a large screen display on a compact device, they have a completely different approach. The Galaxy Fold has dual displays, out of which one is present on the outside aka “cover display” and a larger foldable display which is concealed with a unique folding mechanism. On the other hand, the Mate X has an outer folding display which the company refers to as “falcon wing” design. Unfortunately, the commercial availability of both handsets has been pushed to a future date (1,2). However, by the time the two devices make a comeback, they might not be the only competitors in this segment, as Sony is also working on futuristic device claim patents (1).
Besides having a foldable display, the alleged Sony smartphone will have a few other nifty tricks up its sleeve. The patent discovered by a Netherland based website, Letsgodigital reveals that foldable Sony smartphones which are expected to launch in the near future will have an array of new generation sensors. Accordingly, the drawings in the document exhibit three different sensors in a foldable device which include a temperature sensor, pressure sensor and acceleration sensor. As the name suggests the pressure sensor will be able to sense the force applied on the display, this could something be similar to 3D touch seen on Apple iPhones which prompt different options based on the pressure applied to the display.
Furthermore, the temperature sensor will likely measure the temperature of the users from their finger. Though not many details about this type of sensor are available, this could very well be targetted towards the health and fitness domain. The accelerometer sensor is common sighting on most modern smartphones and it is mainly used to track the orientation of the device.
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The patents also divulge that the device from Sony will have just one display which will fold on the outside. The design is similar to that Huawei Mate X, that we, fortunately, got to have a close look at. The patents do not reveal any specifications about the Sony handset but it is expected to be laden with high end features.
To sum it up, Sony holds the technical prowess required to fabricate such a device. However, we will have to wait for some concrete details in order to verify the existence of the handset.
