It was only a matter of time before foldable phones had two folds: Tecno has just shown its own concept

What do all the foldable phones we’ve seen on the market so far have in common? They fold once and split into two. It doesn’t matter what format (Fold or Flip), they all have a single hinge that divides the screen into two halves. The format, although it has improved over time, is still essentially the same, but it’s only a matter of time before we start to see larger foldable phones with two folds. Well, the time has come and the Chinese company Tecno has been the first to show its concept.

Tecno Phantom Ultimate 2. That is the name given to this peculiar conceptual smartphone. Because yes, the Phantom Ultimate 2 (the Phantom Ultimate It was, remember, a concept for a rollable mobile phone, it is a concept, a technical test. What does that mean? It may never see the light of day. That, however, does not mean that it is not interesting to see the result and the use cases in which such a terminal could make sense.

From big to much biggerThe key to foldable phones like the Fold is that they turn a large or relatively large screen into an even larger one. It’s the closest thing to a “phone that turns into a tablet” that we have for now. The problem is that the format of the unfolded screen tends more towards 1:1 than 4:3 or 18:9 and that, for viewing content, is not the best. A mobile phone with a double fold aka Tri-Fold takes that idea further.

The screen of the Tecno Tri-Fold. The Chinese firm has implemented a LTPO OLED panel which has a size of 6.48 inches when folded. If we open it, the panel goes from 6.48 inches to 10 inches with 2,880 x 1,620 pixels resolution and 4:3 format. In other words, we go from a large mobile phone to a medium-sized tablet.

Tecno Phantom Ultimate 2 | Image: Tecno

In the case of the Phantom Ultimate 2, Tecno claims that it is the first foldable with TDDI technology. This means that the display controller and the touch sensor are on the same chip. However, what is more striking is its thickness of just 11 millimeters when fully folded. Knowing that it is a concept, and with that in mind, we are talking about a mobile phone that folds twice and is thinner than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold6. The back cover, by the way, is only 0.25 millimeters thick.

The hinge. It’s normal to think that the screen is the most important thing in a foldable phone, and that’s not entirely the case. The screen is important, but the hinge is critical. It’s not only responsible for the phone opening and closing, but it also largely determines how much or how little the crease is noticeable. In this sense, Tecno has implemented not one, but two hinges whose mechanisms can withstand, according to the firm, 300,000 folds. The point, of course, is that the folds are not in the central area of ​​the phone, but on the sides, so that, when we use it folded, we won’t have any kind of wrinkle in our field of vision.

Tecno Phantom Ultimate 2 | Image: Tecno

Tecno Phantom Ultimate 2 | Image: Tecno

Interesting use casesBeyond the obvious (you take your phone out of your pocket on the subway and turn it into a tablet to watch an episode of something while you wait), we can think about turning it into a small computer, a real-time translator for two people, or a device to collaborate on the creation of a document, for example.

Tecno Phantom Ultimate 2 | Image: Tecno

The next step for folding phones. Although Tecno has been the first to publicly show the world its research in the world of double foldables, it has not been the first to boast about its work. Samsung already showed its triple-screen prototype with double fold at iMiD 2021 and TCL did the same at MWC 2022. We also know that Huawei is working on its own proposal (which, apparently, We will meet in September) and it is rumored that Xiaomi has one in its handsWhat seems clear is that foldable phones are close to being completely renewed.

Image | Techno