TCL futuristic foldable hands-on - Concept & Review By 1M Qtns

Kovacs 19 definitely put a snag in the collective MWC 2020 plans as a whole, which would be a nice way of saying that the event had to be cancelled, and understandably so. This development might be unfortunate, but most manufacturers are already shifting plans around to bring their respective MWC showcases and devices to the public on an alternative schedule. TCL is, in this exact same boat with new own branded phones, skipping MWC and now expected to arrive in the near future. In a rather odd development, TCL did still decide to bring a few devices over to Barcelona during what was originally supposed to be MW scene. We got to check these out briefly, and we do have a few thoughts to share before we get into the actual meat of things, though, we should clarify that all of these devices, a pretty early-stage foldable display prototypes and far from actual products, are not even remotely close to finished. They don't have official model numbers attached to them and some of the units we were handled even lack to functional display featuring a dummy print out.

Instead, TCL is clearly trying its best to make its foldable display efforts known without really making any specific promises for the future, and, as some of you might remember, this isn't the first such showcase by the company. In fact, MWC 2019 saw a very similar array of prototypes on display. That being said, the year later, TCL's conceptual design looks a lot more refined overall and are worth checking out for that reason alone. Kicking things off with what was the most functional out of the three TCL foldable prototypes on display. We have a device very reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy fold, that is to say that its booklet, two-piece folding in design, is just as straightforward.

The idea behind it is also clear, fitter tablets worth of screen real estate in a pocket-friendly stack TCL is not sharing any specifics on the prototype, not even basic bits like the display. Diagonal TCL's design looks a bit more square than Samsung's. Each of the two halves is wider and shorter. That essentially makes for landscape orientation on the unfolded display without the need to rotate the phone, arguably better, for video consumption and gaming, but probably worse, for scrolling long UI lists and mobile web pages. Since we are already on the topic of display and its potential multimedia prowess, it is worth noting that the unit we got to check out has an uninterrupted panel on the front.

There is no cutout punch, hole or notch in sight, that's unquestionably better for watching videos, but not really a compromise free solution on this particular device, since there seems to be no earpiece or internal selfie camera in sight. The lack of a secondary display on the outside also means that there is no easy way to simply take selfies with the main camera pull things that can easily be forgiven on what is essentially an early design mock-up. Since this was the only unit out of the three with an actual working display, we do feel obliged to talk about its properties. This is a very early implementation and a work-in-progress and is probably not indicative of the final panel nor its mounting, which looks kind of crude and features a very thick overlapping bezel. With that warning, out of the way, we will say that the display surface both looked and felt very soft uneven and plastic.

All those reflections that the camera picked up. You can see most of them in person as well, due to the very poor uniformity of the surface. Again, this is an early prototype, so make of that what you will moving on from the display to the other bits and pieces of the unit frankly made those feel very premium and well-made in the large surfaces on the back of the two folding halves feature a nifty pattern, design on this particular unit. These panels felt a bit on the plastic side, but considering they are meant to be separate from the main actual frame of the phone. We can only imagine some toughened glass will be in the final design.

Looking at the phone in its fully folded down state, we can't help but notice the impressive tightness of the fit in the lack of an air gap, an issue that played to the original Samsung Galaxy fold and is also present in a lesser degree, on the new Samsung Galaxy zed flip. However, we don't think TCL managed to develop a revolutionary new generation of a foldable display with a tighter curve. Instead, the thickness of the two folding halves manages to work pretty well together with the hinge to achieve the effect it is impressive. Nonetheless, speaking of the hinge, its spine looks and feels sturdy enough. The folding action was relatively smooth on the prototype unit, as well still without any knowledge of its internal structure and things like added protection from dust.

We can't really be certain of its actual qualities in terms of controls and lay out the design seems to have all the essentials sensibly laid out in a closed State. You end up with a mostly empty top side, housing, just a secondary microphone and a bottom with two speaker looking grilles and a hole for the main microphone. Hopefully, both of these house speakers, since these would end up in a very convenient, far left and right location when the unit is unfolded, potentially providing stereo outputs. Most other bits end up on the right hand, side where the two folding halves meet. These include a volume rocker power button, no sign of a fingerprint reader, a SIM card tray and a rather oddly positioned, type-c port.

The latter does start to make sense when you think about it, though. Finally, since we assure it, is going to come up in the comments, we have little info on the camera setup of this prototype. Frankly, upon closer inspection, most of it appears to be an array of fake lenses and cutouts. If we had to guess as far as this particular prototype goes, we would say one or perhaps two of the holes actually have working cameras again. That is not really important on a nameless early prototype.

The text, alongside the five module camera array, reads: macro lens two point: nine micrometers, UP 48 MP one point: eight minus two point: four, twelve minus twenty-six millimeters. There is a lot to potentially unpack here, but again there is no point in doing so, since this text is probably just a placeholder moving onto TCL's, more interesting and ambitious designs, we saw a dual folding concept on display. That is three separate pieces. One folding inward spoil the other outwards, we've seen similar Affairs in patent filings before, but never actually in person, debatable usability and durability. Arguments aside, it is still an impressive feat to see two very different hinge types in action on the same device.

Dragon hinge and butterfly hinge as per the company's own naming for the designs. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to fold or even touch this particular unit, even though it appeared to be functioning. The company apparently still had reservations about letting us try out the hinges, adding an extra layer of confusion. This particular prototype was also the only one out of the bunch to come with a bit of hardware info, not too much mind you, but there was mention of a 10 inch, ALO LED display with freeze resolution in the unfolded state and six point: six five inches still usable when folded, also smooth folding, minimal gap, multi-dimensional shine with 3d holographic, finish and last, but not least, rigorously tested for durability, apparently that last bit did not apply for the particular unit, accompanied via do not fold. Please sign feels just preface this particular one by saying it's a dummy unit through and through plastic body and printed out plastic display, just in case the latter wasn't already obvious from the particular positioning on the front-facing selfie camera modules, which have ended up on the side curve of the display.

Even sir. This is a design that is worth checking out since barring a couple of technological difficulties, it might just almost be within our reach from appeal technology standpoint. Looking at the dummy unit from the backside offers a slightly better understanding of what is actually going on. Imagine a wallet or a bookshelf with the plant housing, the main camera array playing the part of the banknote or book respectively. The idea is for that bit to simply slide down and inside the other segments of the body when that occurs.

It moves the panel down changing its advertised usable size from six point: seven, five inches to seven point: eight inches in diagonal, the nutter slips inside the same nine millimeter space. Only at an angle and from the opposing side that Wang once folded up both the moving part in the display end up occupying the same space instead of rolling up inside the space. The excess part of the display ends up mostly flat and slips underneath the now attractive body of the phone. At a rather odd angle, we can't say this looks like a particularly efficient use of space. Quite the contrary, when you really think about it, it turns out that practically all the internals of the phone need to end up inside the volume of the smaller sliding part of the body.

This in turn could create a major imbalance in fuel weight terms. When the device is unfolded, you will likely end up with a very heavy heart and a very light half not to mention that such a design will probably enforce huge space constraints on engineers. On the flip side, the whole thing does look quite cool and futuristic TCL's. End goal for the design is to have the sliding mechanism fully motorized and controlled by a sliding gesture inside the UI. That would definitely push the whole design from cool to supremely cool.

On the flip side, it does make us question the feasibility of the whole thing even more, since that means unique prop the guide rails and hefty motors on the inside as well still TCL talks. The big talk of advanced multitasking UI. Another major PR point is the reduction in display creasing, somehow facilitated by the design. As for the dummy unit, we got to handle its slider while functional consisted of one plastic bit rubbing up against another sure. We did manage to slide it open and then close it back up neatly, but it required quite a bit of force and was anything but smooth again, very early concepts all around here from TCL, nothing too spectacular, nor anything to really look forward to in the short term.

Even so, we do appreciate the company's efforts for a second year in a row in showcasing what it is working on in the kind of products we can look forward to once foldable display tech starts picking up and becomes more Stream. You.

Source : 1M Qtns