ZTE's dual-screen, foldable smartphone will be here soon. Get excited
Earlier last month, we wrote about how foldable displays will soon make their entry in the smartphone market and revolutionise the industry forever. Looks like the wheels of change have started turning already.
Smartphone maker ZTE has unveiled a dual-screen foldable smartphone Axon M at an event in the US. The newly launched device will also be released in China, Japan and in Europe, but sadly there is no news on the phone's launch date for India.
Though we have previously seen devices with foldable and dual screen displays, this is the first mainstream phone to come bearing the tag.
So what is the phone about?
So first things first, the Axon M is not a phone with foldable displays, but rather a device with two displays that uses a mechanical setup to fold the phone to create the illusion of using a phone with a big display while maintaining a small form factor.
Unlike the idea of a traditional foldable phone, the device does not come with a foldable OLED display that can be twisted or turned to change the device's form factor, but rather, comes with two 5.2-inch displays separated by a hinge that can be used to fold the phone's body up to 180 degrees.
So essentially when the phone is opened fully, the displays end up being side by side and the phone turns into a tablet, while when it's closed, it turns into a device with two displays at the back and the front. These can be used in in three different modes; Extended Mode, Dual Mode and Mirror Mode.
Both of the displays on the device are full HD in panels and boast of a pixel density of 428ppi. They are also protected by two separate sheets of Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
However, the use of two displays makes the phone a bit on the heavier side – the Axon M is 12.1mm thick and weighs 230 grams. This is considerably heavier and thicker in comparison to average smartphones which weigh far less and come sporting frames that are usually thinner than 8mm.
What's under the hood?
Under the hood, the Axon M does not bring anything out of the ordinary and is powered by a generation old Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC paired with 4GB of RAM. The device comes with 64GB of internal storage on board which is further expandable up to 256GB using a microSD card.
The phone gets its juice from a 3,180mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support. Interestingly, there are dual speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack as well as a USB Type-C port on the device.
Because of its unique design that employs a hinge to fold the phone's body, the phone uses a single 20 Megapixel sensor as the front and back camera. The camera module comes with image stabilisation and PDAF. ZTE have also equipped the camera with a LED flash.
Why should you be excited?
Well solely because this phone marks the beginning of a truly interesting period for the smartphone industry. For the last couple of years, smartphones have innovated and improved but within a defined framework. Though designs have evolved to look sleeker and better, all smartphones have become monotonous in design with a glass slab and metallic or plastic back.
Foldable phones like Axon M and Samsung's much anticipated Galaxy X which is reported to come to the market with a foldable display in 2018, will again kick-start a period of innovation that was that was last seen only in 2007 when the first iPhone changed our lives forever.
The Axon M may not be perfect in terms of usability like the Galaxy S8 or the Pixel, but it should still be celebrated for the promise of taking us one step closer to an exciting future.