With the growing popularity of foldable phones, the foldable laptop market also seems to be starting to grow. HP has joined the effort and is reportedly working on a 17-inch laptop with a foldable OLED display.
Conventional laptops can technically fold closed, but the new foldable laptop device refers to the screen that can be folded. So a foldable laptop will have the screen fold in half, with the bottom being used as a virtual keyboard or with a physical keyboard that slides in.
Reporting from Digitaltrends (19/4), the big challenge facing folding laptops is the material to make the screen. Phones have opted for ultra-thin glass, and that’s mostly used in Samsung’s foldable lineup like the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip. However, there is no information on what screen material is best for laptops. Compared to the foldable phone market, there is almost no market for folding laptops.
LG and SK IE Technology appear to be providing 10,000 flexible OLED screens for mobile phones made of thin polyamide films. This is the same material that was used in the earlier Galaxy Z Fold devices.
The first foldable laptop is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold. Although this computer has a beautiful screen, it is a bit too cramped and uncomfortable to use for most people. Several other foldable laptops have been announced since then, such as the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold and the Samsung Flex Note. Both devices learn from the mistakes of the ThinkPad X1 Fold and have a 17-inch display which is roughly the same as a 13-inch display when folded.
HP’s yet-to-be-announced foldable laptop appears to be taking a similar approach with a 17-inch display that folds down to 11 inches, and now we know what material it will be using. The screen will also have a 4K resolution and a touchscreen with stylus support. This can make it a great choice for artists and creatives alike.
