We already know that Chinese phone maker Huawei is working on a foldable smartphone of its own. The company has officially confirmed the plans, and has patented a few designs as well. Reportedly, Huawei is planning to launch the device by November, aiming to beat Samsung to launch the world’s first foldable display smartphone. Now, in line with that, a Korean news outlet, ET News, claims that Huawei has teamed-up with Chinese display manufactures, BOE, to commercially produce the foldable display panels.
Huawei-BOE partnership
BOE is one of the world’s leading display manufacturer and largest in China. The company surpasses the likes of Samsung and LG in terms of LED display manufacturing. BOE is now aiming to get hold on next-generation OLED display market and has started mass-production of flexible OLEDs. According to ET News, the company is responsible for manufacturing an 8-inch flexible display for Huawei’s foldable phone.
Along with Huawei, BOE is also reportedly working with one more smartphone manufacturers for flexible display panel. Samsung could be the other client, as it has an in-house partner in Samsung Display. But it’s a mere guess and it shouldn’t surprise anyone if the other company is not Samsung but some other Chinese company like Xiaomi or Oppo. These companies have also patented smartphone designs with flexible display. Lenovo and ZTE have also experimented with flexible devices in the past. So who knows!
Just like Samsung’s foldable phone, Huawei’s one is also expected to feature an inward folding design. The company’s 2017 patent for the phone revealed that when the display is folded, it can be used as a smartphone and when unfolded, it can function like a tablet. However, no further details have surfaced so far.
While Samsung and Huawei seem to be competing to launch the first truly-foldable smartphone, other OEMs like Xiaomi, Oppo, Lenovo, and LG are also in the race. It’d be interesting to see who comes out at top.
