Apple’s long-rumoured foldable iPhone could finally become a reality if a recently awarded patent is any indication. This patent hints at a revolutionary self-healing screen.
Look guys, Apple is innovating something that already exists again.
I know foldables have been in the market for a few years now, but do any have self healing screens?
https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=US224376770
They aren’t doing anything new. They just have more money to throw at advertising propaganda.
advertising propaganda
Well that’s just redundant! I see Samsung holds this patent, I’m just wondering if they have this on any of their fold line of products.
yes, all of them. if what the tech was made for.
Thanks. I’m not exactly shocked to see this kind sensationalism in tech reporting, dumb.
I’ve read through the above Samsung patent and the Apples one. The one main difference I found was that Apple is talking about a heating layer between the other layer in the display that can initiate the selfhealing process (which could be initiated by the user, on schedule, or while charging the battery). I haven’t see a mention of such thing in the Samsung patent. Plus, Apples patent doesn’t seem to go into detail regarding the materials of the layer, only that it can be made out of „suitable materials”.
Do they use the material PDMS? I know that has some self healing properties
Can they actually do „nothing new”? We’re talking about a patent here that they were granted. Aren’t patents by definition about something new?
Ideally. I literally just linked prior art though, their patent is invalid.
Apple made no announcement or advertisement of any sort. Government patent examiners, after careful review, determined this is a novel invention or improvement. It’s not possible for your comment to be any more literally wrong than it is.
Because the patent office is never wrong?
Hahahahahaha
It feels like… „selfhealing? I heard that before. Apple? Ah yes, don’t like. Apple does nothing new and here is a patent that has the word selfhealing in it too”
Loads of premium dumb phones had self healing displays back in the days. It’s just a property of some plastics. But once we moved to glass screens, this feature got lost. The problem with plastic screens is that they’re sticky compared to glass screens and that’s not a good feeling when using a capacitive touch screen.
Apparently Samsung Folds have some kind of healing (according to Reddit posts). But remember… Apple bad
My partner has been using a Samsung Fold for two years, the one that folds open into a small tablet. It looked nice at first but it hasn’t held up well. There’s this film on the screen that you’re not supposed to remove and it’s deteriorating fast. There are these little patches on the screen that look sort of like bubbles. Plus even from the start you could see the crease in the middle of the screen.
that was my case as well with the fold 2. I upgraded to the fold 5 since launch last year and can say the toughness on the main screen between the fold 2 and 5 is night and day. not a single scratch or bubble anywhere on the folding screen, held up very well.
I have a friend with the fold 3, and the main screen is basically destroyed, much like your partner.
it has to do with the way they are folded. the fold 5 uses a “tear drop” fold similar to the Motorola phones.
Pic for reference:
Jeez we are at the fold 5. This shouldn’t make me feel old but here I am, feeling old.
The protective plastic seems to still be on this one. I used my z flip for 1 year before realizing that the crease was actually the plastic and not the screen itself.
yup! there’s no need for me to pull this off yet, has held up surprisingly well. I had to take my screen protector off like 2 months into me owning the fold 2 lol
It was the crease I always knew was going to happen. Tech is cool but terrible in practice. Too short of a lifespan. Buddy bought one Amy time he happily showed me his phone in hopes of swaying me to it, that’s all I couod see was the crease. 1.5 years later, back to normal phone…
The crease doesn’t matter. Had a fold 3 for almost 3 years, and the crease has never bothered me. You dont see it when using the devices. you do from other angles, but even then, it’s dependant on external light. I have never found a situation where the crease being there has ever been a problem. And I challenge you to give me a good example.
This is the one thing people say that I feel is mostly rooted in a form of propaganda, or like a rumour if that makes sense. You have been told about the crease and it was made to sound bad you personally believe the crease would be bad and it all joins up to form a strange, baseless bias that the crease is bad. You have admitted yourself that you dont own one, so I can safely assume you haven’t held one for long enough to realise that the crease wouldn’t bother you if you had one of these phones.
Also, like I said, I’ve had mine for almost 3 years and it’s still going strong. I replaced the screen protector once because I accidentally scratched it but I did that myself with a £15 kit I got on amazon. So the lifespan is fine. Your bias is unfounded. You should use one as a daily driver for a bit and than review your opinion.
Edit. Inb4 “you’re butthurt”. Idc. I dont think I am, because I’m just arguing the side of someone who has one, but I dont mind if you wanna think im just angry cause you insulted my choice to buy one. I know from personal experience the only real downside to this phone is the narrow outer screen and that only really bothers me when I’m watching video, but then why would I use the outer screen for that? For general use that screen is fine.
You can get the film replaced, for free the first time, then like $20 after. Mine basically came all the way off on the fold for my z flip, but then I went to a galaxy store and they replaced it and it’s fine now.
lol yeah, love someone downvoting me for asking a simple question
The LG flex had a flexible and self-healing screen in 2013
It wasn’t a flexible screen, it was just bent. Also it was the back that was self healing iirc, not the display
How does it heal, does it still work 10+ years later? How many major OS updates did it get?
I don’t know. I know some older midrange phones tried it out. I wonder if the main benefit is to heal the crease from the screen being unfolded or if it is to protection the softer screen surface. I hope it solves the former issue.
My wife as one and no it does not. Does leave a crease just where it folds. Also it’s already began to glitch. Just saying we won’t be buying another one.
I remember trying Windows XP tablets at CeBIT 2004. Apple released their first Tablet in 2010. There‘s releasing something that does a job and there‘s releasing something that does the job. What I‘ve seen from Android foldables was underwhelming, Apple could do something differently, which still fits into the category but has improved aspects not only Apple considers necessary to release such a device.
Apple from some years ago would try current Apple would deliver an privacy nightmare ad ridden shit of a device.
Eh? Apple is pretty decent about privacy, at least leaps and bounds better than anything mainstream in the Android market, and I haven’t seen an ad on my iPhone. What ads are you using talking about?
So what?
Ugh can we just agree that foldy phones are just an altogether dumb idea? I want my phone to have as few moving parts as possible.
I just want a small phone again. Wish they’d bring back the Minis
I just want phones to be fun again. There’s a YouTube series literally called ‘When Phones were Fun’. Where a guy presents all of these models from different manufacturers in the 2000s that all had these crazy but unique phone designs.
Small phones, sliding keyboard phones, compacting phones, media device phones .etc that just had character to them.
But no, we’ve been living in an era of phones where they’re just a series of degrees of rectangular shapes. This one is tall, this one is a little wider and it’s just boring. Flipping the phone inward of itself isn’t really that interesting because it’s just a flip phone now with a screen that can do it.
Full market saturation. They’re washing machines now. We shouldn’t be caring so hard about them anymore. We’re pretty much at the peak of mobile telephony the way we know it. Let’s come up with something totally new and focus on other tech. It’s like still being excited over mass-distributed electricity 40 years after its rollout.
Most of those other types of phones aren’t around anymore because nobody bought them. Sure, small phones are great and I even had a 13 mini, but I’m one of like 20 people who bought it. I’ve never ever seen a sliding keyboard phone in the wild, just on YouTube. Same for those other more eclectic devices. The market has spoken, and it said “giant slabs of glass please”.
We all had sliding keyboards or even physical ones back in my day.
It does seem pretty dumb that Apple ditched the mini form factor after the 12
Edit: it was the 13, my bad. But still, why did they have to kill it?
There was a 12 and a 13 mini.
13, and it just wasn’t worth it. They weren’t selling well enough to justify the manufacturing cost.
I do love the iPhone Mini though. My sister has one, and every time I see it I’m delighted by how tiny it is compared to my Pro Max.
The problem with the minis is that they got no battery life.
Make the fuckers 2mm thicker, gain 10 hours battery life. 5mm more, two days life. Bam. Solved.
The other problem is that only a small, but loud, group buys them. They don’t sell as well.
That’s not my experience. I’ve got a 13 mini for 2 years now and I can go one day easily. I charge every night anyway, so it’s more than enough for me. On low power mode, it’s probably more like 2 days.
No, being able to change size is practical and convenient, there’s a reason people buy them despite the technology being so new
I like it when my phone screen doesn’t get a weird little delaminated ridge though
I think the idea is that the tech will improve. The flaws aren’t features, they’re problems to work out.
They’ve had these things for like 6-8 years or so now and it’s the same problem
Edit: please explain to me how “it still has the same problem” conflicts with “it’s gotten a lot better”? I know it’s gotten better. That’s neat. It’s still not solved.
My point is that I personally consider the simple existence of the issue to disqualify it as something I’d buy. I would consider it if it is no longer a problem. Not improved - eliminated. You’re not going to negotiate, debate, or downvote me into changing my mind on that. It’s a physical defect that’s an artifact of the design and the current technology used to satisfy that design.
The same problem, but is has dramatically improved. Comparing the visibility and feel of the ridge on foldable phones from even two years ago to today is night and day. My roommate has the newest Samsung Flip and even coming directly from my phone its hardly noticeable.
So then don’t buy a folding phone until they make that better.
No one is saying that everyone should having a folding phone. But it seems obvious that the ability to have a large screen that fits in your pocket is a great feature that many people value. There are downsides, but for some people the upsides outweigh them. For other people (like you) they don’t and you can continue to get a non-folding phone.
Uh… yeah. That’s why I’ve never bought one.
Yeah but folding screens though. I was never that interested, but then I held one with my own eyes and I instant got the merit if it. I don’t need one, but if I had Beyonce money I would for sure want one.
If you had Beyonce money, you wouldn’t even have a phone. You would have a team of people who deal with phones for you.
I kinda like the idea of a phone that is usually small, but I can make big by unfolding it if I want to. But I do agree that the fewer moving parts, the sturdier and more BIFL. It’s just that BIFL is not really attainable anyways in the current state of the phone market due to software support obsoletion.
I’d like to see a small eink phone or the tiny matchbook from Her.
The fuck is BIFL?
Buy it for life
Sorry, buy-it-for-life
IrateAnteater is irate
After almost a year with mine I don’t think I’ll go back to a normal phone. Having a small phone that fits in the palm of my hand and I can make full size works for me personally. If I didn’t have the external screen and it was a full sized phone that opened I’d probably agree.
I’ve had the z fold 3, 4, 5 and pixel fold, right there with you. I mostly hear the complaints about people thinking folding phones are dumb from sites where people are more likely to have serious opinions on what phone you should buy, like here and reddit. To be honest everytime someone sees my phone for the first time they’re super interested in it and could see themselves buying one; the real issue is the price. As soon as I mention that it’s probably 3x the price of their current phone, that’s the end of that lol. Hopefully they can get the price down to regular slab phones. Once they do I think they’ll start to seriously compete because I think this form factor is incredible.
I wouldn’t mind a fold like the S4 Fold (which never made production) (or whatever it wa about 2015).
I’d rather it be two phones joined in the middle like that with a minimal/no bezel there, rather than a folding screen.
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I think except for the camera phones have stopped being pragmatic for quite a while.
This message brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department
You mean that having N+1 sensors every other year is redundant. My phone is 4 years old and had already a quite bad camera at that time so I wouldn’t know.
Seeing photos from other people it’s obvious how good phones have become (even if there might be some overengineering), on the other hand my phone also had a bad CPU / RAM / Battery / Screen for the time and people who have phones with more computing power than my laptop do the exact same things as I do.
Bro I was just being cheeky about the fact that you double posted
Oh Wtf, I think it’s because of a bad connection at that time
I want self-healing tech in my body.
…I mean better tech than what comes standard with it.
I mean… You’re body is already way more self healing than an iPhone ever will be so at least there’s that
Unless OP is a hemophiliac.
Maybe our microplastics will start self healing us or give us cancer 2.0
…either way 50/50
Ooh nice, cuz cancer 1.0 sucks
KOLANAK!!
KOLANAKi
I still don’t understand why I should care for a foldable touchscreen phone. Nor for apple products.
The two things that appeal to me about the folding phone are (1) protecting the screen from scratches, especially in my pocket or backpack and (2) that when folded, I wont accidentally touch the screen in a way that will register as a click or swipe. The last one in particular is super annoying to me. However, it doesn’t seem like the technology is ready for this yet since it sounds like the folding mechanism breaks easily. And ofc, I never buy anything Apple.
My FP3 hanged around in my pocket unprotected for 4 years and still has no scratch on its screen. I feel like the industry learned how to make basically indestructible glass for a while (except if you casually put diamonds in the same pocket).
What if I accidentally put my mohs’ hardness picks in the same pocket :(
If years of using a case has taught me, once you get some sand or something in it, it will practically scratch itself.
1 - screen protector 2 - do people not lock their phones before putting them in their pockets?
For 2, the issue is most phones have a lock screen overview sorta effect, where the phone can wake up from sleep with movement or gestures. Actions on the lock screen can hence trigger things, like media playback and emergency dialling
You can solve both of those problems by using a folding case/cover for your phone.
Blink twice if Apple is forcing you to read this article. Otherwise you could just keep scrolling if you don’t care that much?
I have one, it’s nice because it actually fits in my pocket and has a stable center of gravity. Every other phone I’ve had would regularly fall out of my pockets, and that’s how they would become broken or lost. I bought mine used last year, and it’s still in great condition.
I used a fold 3 since release, and two years in something broke in the hinge and it can no longer opens at 180°. Now the maximum angle is ~175° and it feels awkward to use, and doesn’t sit right on a table.
Hopefully Apple will figure out the hinge and screen tech by the time their foldy phone comes out.
Apple has a ton of engineering experience with hinges from their laptop days, and even the old lampshade-style iMac.
You mean the ones that failed multiple model years because the ribbon was too short?
Yeah, you tend to learn from those sort of mistakes
You or I might, but companies have a constant flow of new middle management who want to make their KPIs this quarter and will shove their own mother in front of an oncoming train to get there. Corporations don’t learn, doubly true for corporations like Apple who have basically captured an audience within their walled garden, the motivation is always all the money now, not some money consistently forever.
Even when you have a company like Samsung with their exploding battery fiasco. Sure they have protections now in place against designing a new product with bad batteries, but give it some time and they’ll do it again when a middle manager (who wasn’t there the first time) ignores the recommendations of their engineers and the company guidelines so they can save $0.001/phone by using a slightly inferior battery design and net that neat bonus for keeping costs down. It will always happen.
Apple don’t.
I don’t care if the screen can heal itself from creases. Over time, it will possibly develop creases that’ll still be made. Because phones aren’t fucking books.
Sorry I’ll just stick to my bland ass rectangular single screen phone, thanks. Oh and I’ll stay with Samsung too since I expect rightfully that when Apple rolls this thing out, it’ll be $1,500 and it’ll have a bunch of drooling status-seeking fanboys falling over to get it.
$1500? Unlikely. Probably 2,000 or 2,500 💀
The self healing part is for scratches on the inner screen. Since the inner screen can’t be made of glass, it’s prone to scratches.
Do not want.
Another nice thing we won’t have because of possible litigation.
