Nubia, originally a subsidiary of the Chinese ZTE, is best known for its wearable with a bendable screen. The Nubia α is a smartphone with a 4-inch flexible display that you can wear on your wrists, such as a smartwatch. A recently published patent shows that the Chinese manufacturer is also working on a flexible smartphone in the background.
Nubia phone models with flexible screen and notch
It concerns two design patents. Both were submitted in March 2018 to the Global Design Database of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office). The two Nubia Technology patents were published on 12 April 2019 and show different variants of a flexible smartphone screen. It concerns a total of 16 models, which differ from each other only in terms of a notch.
The screen size is the same for all models, it is a fairly elongated screen. Eight variants show a notch on both the top and bottom of the device. At half the notch is placed exactly in the middle, these models differ from each other in terms of the shape. The other four also opted for a symmetrical arrangement, but these are placed a little further away from the center.
With the other eight models, we see a flexible telephone screen with a notch made only at the top. Six of the eight models have a double notch, which has been designed in different ways. The dual notch is kept very minimal in all cases, to create as large a screen area as possible, Only two of the sixteen models in total show a notch for a single camera.
Now that the first foldable smartphones have been introduced, such as the Royole Flexpai , the Samsung Galaxy Fold, and the Huawei Mate X, it is the turn of other manufacturers to unveil their variant of a phone with a flexible screen.
Although all models to date unfold into a tablet format device, you will undoubtedly be able to buy several variants in the (near) future, such as a clamshell model. Other manufacturers seem to be concentrating on developing a bendable phone because Nubia is not the only one.
Another company that shows many similarities with the developments that Nubia has shown to date is Lenovo. This Chinese manufacturer has since shown various prototypes. Both from a wearable, such as the Nubia Alpha, and a flexible telephone, as now also patented by Nubia. The device of Lenovo, however, still has fairly wide bezels, so there is no notch here.
Another manufacturer that probably has a similar bendable phone in development is Samsung. This major Korean manufacturer has now applied for patents for every possible type of design.
Whether and when we will hear more about this flexible Nubia smartphone is still unclear. It seems a fairly futuristic design, although Samsung shows with its Fold that it is indeed possible to provide a flexible screen with a notch. Moreover, Nubia was among the first to introduce a wearable smartphone with a flexible screen, so you never know.
