Foldable screen: TCL invents the accordion smartphone

Foldable screen: TCL invents the accordion smartphone

This Chinese manufacturer offers robust and flexible hinges for smartphones, and to demonstrate it, he unveiled a device with three panels, which unfolds. A real feat even if for now, no release date is planned.

Unknown yet in Europe, TCL has decided to make a name for itself on the smartphone market with powerful low-power models like the Plex or models ... never seen before. This is the case of this smartphone project with a foldable screen with three panels that confreres of CNET have taken in hand.

Yes, no foldable screen in two like the Samsung Fold or the Mate X Huawei since this time, TCL offers a flip screen, as could be the old maps. Forcibly, with such a concept, the screen area reaches 10 inches, and it is closer to the size of an iPad.

As can be seen in the video, the folds remain clearly visible on the slab. © CNET

A prototype for the moment

Through this project, TCL simply intends to demonstrate the quality of these hinges, weak point of competition. Already at the Mobile World Congress last February, the Chinese manufacturer had proven that it was able to design foldable smartphones in and out. By combining the two technologies, we obtain this smartphone "accordion" that snapshots CNET can better identify. We discover four photo sensors on the back and a sensor for selfies on the front. We also note that it is very thick when folded, and it will be a brake at the time of its possible exit.

But no need to test it since it is not functional as it is. So we remain at the prototype stage, technology demonstration at the hinges, but nothing on the slab. Recall that the other problem of Fold was in the fold of the screen, with a protection not to be removed. On a smartphone with three panels, it will be even more perilous, and the video above shows that the traces appear at the folds.