In November last year, Royole introduced the world’s first folding smartphone, the FlexPai, to everyone’s astonishment. Royole has designed the flexible display itself. Last week, at MWC 2019, they introduced two folding phones, the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X. Several other manufacturers have shown a prototype, such as Xiaomi and Oppo.
Also, Motorola, LG, Vivo, and Apple have a folding phones in development. Even from Intel, we have come across a patent for a foldable smartphone. You would think that we have gradually mapped out all players. Or can there still be a manufacturer who comes just as unexpectedly around the corner as Royole?
Visionox is the company behind the foldable phone Xiaomi
We are talking about Visionox Technology. This Chinese company was founded in 2001 and had many similarities with Royole. For example, Visionox has been producing OLED screens for years. Last year it started the production of flexible AMOLED displays in the new 6. The generation OLED plant. The Visionox displays are used by numerous reputable companies, for example, Xiaomi.
Last month, Xiaomi confirmed to LetsGoDigital that the display of her foldable phone was developed in collaboration with a partner whose partner was not mentioned. In homeland China, they have now discovered who this partner is; Visionox Technology, so cnBeta reported.
Foldable smartphone with two separate displays
A recently published patent shows that the Chinese display manufacturer also has a foldable phone in development, with or without a partner.
In May 2018, Yungu (Gu’an) Technology, a subsidiary of Visionox, filed a design patent with the Global Design Database of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office). The patent was published on 1 March 2019.
It is a foldable smartphone where the display is on the outside. Remarkably, there does not appear to be a flexible display. They are two separate screens, with a small gap in between, similar to the ZTE Axon M.
However, ZTE’s device had rounded corners on all sides; Visionox’s foldable phone is completely straight in the middle, giving you the idea of a tablet. A narrow screen edge can be seen above and below each screen. A camera is placed on both the left and right sides in the upper bezel. The receiver can also be found here.
Whether Visionox actually intends to put its own foldable phone on the market is unclear for the time being. ZTE is also one of Visionox’s partners, it is possible that this design will be used by ZTE as a successor to the Axon M. Anyway, it is striking that this display company also submits a patent for a foldable smartphone model.
