14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung has been working on its Project Valley for some time now, as the company is expected to unveil the Galaxy X phone with a 4K flexible display sometime in 2017. Now, a new patent has surfaced, revealing the concepts for foldable smartphones and tablets.
Samsung has been rumored to be working on such devices for quite a while, and a new patent application has surfaced, providing us with some details on the concepts for foldable smartphones as well as tablets. It's worth noting that the patent was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in November 2015, according to Patently Mobile.
It shows that the devices will come with touch gesture support while also revealing that users will have to touch an icon on the edge display before they unfold the tablet. An application will automatically launch when the tablet is unfolded. At this point, it's quite unclear what options the application will have, but they're surely connected to the folding process.
In addition, the patent application shows that several user profiles could be enabled and displayed on the edge area so that the tablet could be unlocked. The smartphone or tablet will feature a method for controlling a floating display area, depending on the direction in which the device is viewed.
Samsung is expected to release a smartphone with flexible display next year
The parent application offers quite a few details on what the smartphone or tablet with a foldable display will look like, but it might be a while until Samsung actually debuts such a device.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy X is expected to hit the market, and it will be a smartphone that will surely attract consumers’ attention. The device part of Project Valley is rumored to come with a flexible 4K display. Besides, the company is said to be testing two foldable smartphones with a flexible display, one sporting a Snapdragon 620 and the other an SD 820 chipset.
