Newsletter
Huawei has seemingly designed a foldable phone with asymmetrical halves. The company sent in a design patent for it, and you can check out its design in the images provided throughout the article.
Huawei sent in a patent showing a foldable phone with asymmetrical halves
Based on what we can see here, this phone has one display on each side. Those two displays are not the same size, it seems, and unlike every other book-style foldable in the market, when unfolded, this phone ends up offering two asymmetrical halves.
How come? Well, the second display unfolds towards the left side of the phone. The thing is, that entire display is placed under the camera section of the phone, which takes up the top 10-15% of the device’s back. That section is also noticeably thicker than the rest.
When unfolded, you end up with a somewhat smaller display on the left side, in addition to the main panel, of course. The main display on this phone has a centered display camera hole, while the secondary panel does not.
What we also know from this patent is that one of the cameras on the back is a ToF (Time-of-Flight) camera. There are two additional camera sensors included on the back. This phone has rather sharp corners all around.
There are several disadvantages to this design
That’s basically everything we know thus far. Needless to say, the secondary panel ends up being exposed on the back when it’s folded. That’s not the case when unfolded, of course.
Also, this phone, when unfolded, is closer to the Microsoft Surface Duo series, than it is to one of the phones with foldable displays. Why? Well, these two panels seem to be separate entities. The front and back displays are not a singular panel.
It sure is an odd design, and chances are Huawei will never manufacture something like this. It remains to be seen, though.