The latest Samsung foldable smartphone patent makes no sense at all

Patently Mobile has uncovered new Samsung patents for a foldable smartphone. The only problem with the new design – one that sees your phone fold in half – is that it doesn’t make any real sense. Instead of having a large thin oblong in your pocket (which tends to be a long oblong shape itself), you’ll be getting a fat folded square instead.

We’ve seen plenty of designs and patents for foldable smartphones over the years and have even written about why flexible displays haven’t taken over yet. But most of the designs we’ve seen have been funky, futuristic phones that look like something straight out of Back to the Future. But Samsung’s latest patent looks exactly like a Galaxy phone of today, except it folds in half.

Folding the device in half exposes the flexible display as well as a hidden charging port that can then be docked into a cradle. This design means that your phone would not have a display visible while being charged either. So yeah, there’s that. Interestingly, Samsung’s patents shows a slightly curved display too, but one in the shape of the LG G Flex rather than the ill-fated Galaxy Round.

While we can’t wait for the flexible display and folding screen future, we had kind of hoped it would look a little cooler than this. Samsung will surely add some unique features to its final folding design, but as it stands I don’t see much point. I guess your smartphone screen won’t be as easy to scratch, but it looks like even in Samsung’s futuristic folding phone world the camera bump still exists.

What are your thoughts on this new design? How would you design a folding phone?