Are foldable phones going to be 2017’s trend? It certainly seems that way because according to the rumors, not only is Samsung planning on launching their Galaxy X foldable phones this year, but apparently LG is expected to hop on the bandwagon as well. Given that LG and Samsung have a pretty close and fierce rivalry, we guess this shouldn’t be surprising.
To add fuel to those rumors, it seems that a recent LG patent has been discovered in which the company has filed for a patent for their own foldable phone design. As you can see in the diagram above, the display of the phone is folded over the top part of the device. There are also additional drawings that show how the display can be unfolded to create a long-ish looking device.
We’re not sure how practical such a design would be since the idea of a phone that can fold out to become a tablet does seem more appealing, but at the very least it does confirm that LG is looking into foldable phone ideas. LG has attempted to create phones with flexible displays like with the LG G Flex which was succeeded by the LG G Flex 2.
There were rumors of a LG G Flex 3 but given that we did not see anything last year, there is a good chance it could already be dead. That being said, LG isn’t alone in their foldable plans either as a recent patent from Microsoft hinted that the company could be exploring the idea as well.