For all the love we have for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Fold 3 before it, the fold mark is just something you can’t unsee. This is something that Samsung has been thinking about for a long time, and it may now finally arrive in this year’s slate of foldables, according to a report on Korean site Naver.
Shed a tear(drop)
Patented back in 2016, this new hinge would be quite the departure from the standard U-shaped design that folds the display at a tighter angle. Instead, it would be slightly expanded at the bottom for a far gentler curve — looking a bit like a droplet. And of course, less of a fold will reduce the stress put on the display, and reduce the prominence of a crease. Internally, Samsung is calling this new hinge design ‘dumbbell,’ which will still be able to close completely flat, but provides a little more room at the fold. There is another interesting question here, though: why now? As you saw from the year this was patented, Samsung could have used this in practically all of its foldables, but it hasn’t. One theory from SamMobile is that the company could have been waiting to figure out how to make this possible with IPX8-rated water resistance. That’s one of those holy grail features that not many foldable manufacturers have managed to achieve, which would give Samsung a bit of an edge.
Outlook
One of the major pain points of pretty much all foldables at the moment is the noticeable crease. It doesn’t outright ruin the experience, but much like the smallest imperfection like a small dent on your laptop, it will irk you every time you use it. This new teardrop hinge on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 looks to greatly limit the amount the display actually bends at this critical fold area, which means it should greatly reduce the visibility of a crease down the middle — bringing it in line with the likes of the Oppo Find N2. Of course, this will have to be seen to be believed when we go hands-on with this phone later in the year. But color us excited about anything that stops that little mid-screen bump from being there.
