Feeling a little let down with the "folding tablet"

[Jcmg62]

Like pretty much every windows fan, I've been looking forward to the Andromeda device for a long time.

Every OEM, even Intel, have identified the foldable device concept as "the next big thing" but so far all we're seeing are two machines whacked together with a hinge.

Honestly, the device Intel was showing off last week looks almost exactly like the Microsoft Courier.....from 2012.

It's like the tech we're getting excited for in 2018 is going to be the concept devices we saw 6-7 years ago.

Whatever happened to the world of tech moving at lightspeed, where ideas thought up a month ago are already old news?

I was really hoping we'd see a device based on those patents we saw a few months back that indicated an actual folding screen?

 

[covfefe]

Samsung and LG will have actual folding screen devices released very soon. At that point expect Microsoft to abandon their ridiculous dual-screen devices and start from scratch with a folding device that will be cancelled two years later when they can't figure out how to stop it from breaking while the iFoldy is taking the world by storm.

 

[Indistinguishable]

How can you be disappointed? Literally nothing has been released or announced. Intel isn't going to release a device. They were just showing off the fact that their chipset is ready for dual screened devices. That's it.

 

[fatclue_98]

Y'all need to stop taking every tidbit that comes up in tech sites as Holy Gospel. There's this term used in design/engineering circles called "design basis". A mock-up if you will, to set design parameters and create a test mule for the project being developed. These sketches being bandied about have a <10% chance of making it to the final build but the project has to start somewhere.

 

[sd4f]

I sort of wonder, we're quite used to the slate phone format. Flip phones have been around, but say you dock your phone, or use it in a phone cradle? Is it going to have a third screen so that you don't have to unfold the phone when you just want to check the time or notifications?

While some renders look really cool, and make me want one bad (i know they're not official), I think some of these ergonomic features are going to be difficult to overcome with general use. Now I know this isn't a smartphone, but people will still want to take photos, record video, check the time or notifications, etc. Does this mean that a lot of the great features of WP/W10M are lost? Like answering SMS from the lock screen? They'd be pointless if you have to unfold the device and answer that way.

Only way I can think of it is that the screens fold out, as in when the device is folded, the screens are on the outside.

 

[Timbre70]

Give us five inch screen slab phones anytime.

 

[anon(10458357)]

Andromeda's always been a plan-B to me. Any mobile device is better than no mobile device, but honestly I'd much rather just have a good old slate form factor 5.7 or 5.9 inch PHONE - all metal, premium Surface branded device running full Windows 10 Core OS - but a phone nevertheless!

To make it a true innovative "surface-worthy" device I'd like to see it come bundled with a leather wallet folio type-cover case that has a kickstand built into it. Think mini version of the HP Envy x2. And also throw in a pen and an USB-C to HDMI converter all for a bundled price of $799. A 2-in-1 device, part phone, part ACPC.

Heck, HP can sell its 12 inch X2 for $999, and Lenovo can its 12 inch device for $899 MS should be able to sell the much smaller Surface PHONE with a similar typecover/pen and a USB-to-HDMI for $799.

That said... if all MS can muster up is a folding tablet with telephony then so be it, but what I think we all really want is a Surface phone.

 

[techiez]

Like pretty much every windows fan, I've been looking forward to the Andromeda device for a long time.

Every OEM, even Intel, have identified the foldable device concept as "the next big thing" but so far all we're seeing are two machines whacked together with a hinge.

Honestly, the device Intel was showing off last week looks almost exactly like the Microsoft Courier.....from 2012.

It's like the tech we're getting excited for in 2018 is going to be the concept devices we saw 6-7 years ago.

Whatever happened to the world of tech moving at lightspeed, where ideas thought up a month ago are already old news?

I was really hoping we'd see a device based on those patents we saw a few months back that indicated an actual folding screen?
View attachment 139366

Well if Samsung comes up with it first may be they could drive mass adoption to bring the costs down which could benefit MS later.

https://www.pocket-lint.com/phones/...x-foldable-smartphone-could-cost-nearly-2-000

As of now seems the device will be upwards of 2000$

If MS is also able to bring a device with actual foldable screen it would be atleast 2000-2500$ so definitely not something for ppl who look to replace their phones with this device.
2 individual screen can also bring unique user experience, I believe MS is working on the same, and definitely those who want a phone will be dissapointed

 

[fatclue_98]

Well if Samsung comes up with it first may be they could drive mass adoption to bring the costs down which could benefit MS later.

https://www.pocket-lint.com/phones/...x-foldable-smartphone-could-cost-nearly-2-000

As of now seems the device will be upwards of 2000$

If MS is also able to bring a device with actual foldable screen it would be atleast 2000-2500$ so definitely not something for ppl who look to replace their phones with this device.
2 individual screen can also bring unique user experience, I believe MS is working on the same, and definitely those who want a phone will be dissapointed

Paying 2 Gs for a folding Android phablet is crazy. Paying 2 Gs for Windows on ARM with the ability to also use it as a primary communications device without having to tote a tablet or 2-in-1 is pushing the boundaries of justifiable. I'm sure Road Warriors won't have an issue with this especially if they can convince their company to foot the bill. Having 1 less bag to get through TSA is almost worth the price of admission.

 

[Adventurer64]

I travel almost weekly for business and mostly use my SP2017 and sometimes lug my company issued Dell craptop when I have no choice. Our company has many cloud based business applications, so I can get away with using a personal device for short periods. Not sure I would pay $2K for a foldable device to replace my android phone and SP. I'll be retired before my employer ever issues such a device. They are still resisting 2n1 Windows 10 devices. I'm seeing more and more IPad's being issued by our corporate IT though.

 

[Drael646464]

In the 1980s everyone thought the year 2000 would have personal robots and flying cars. Tech doesn't move that fast.

Graphene OLED designs like Samsung and Microsoft showed prototypes for in 2013, cost them about 10,000 USD to make, and that was just a tiny bit of scrolling screen. A prototype for a creaseless notebook, like the above, but a single flexible display would probably cost something in the region of 50,000 USD to make.

The obstacle to brining such devices to market is the process of graphene manufacture. You see, it's actually a nano-material - hexagons of interlinked carbon atoms. So we are not talking just some materials you slap together, we are talking chaining carbon atoms in a specific structure at an atomic level.

Technology comes in bursts. For all the raving about artificial intelligence, AR, the internet of things, and folding tablet designs, these things will take some time to reach the consumer market, just like it took decades from the first mobile phones till the smartphone, and decades from the first computers to the rise of the PC.

Non-creaseless folding designs are not a mass adoption product and not intended to be. Mass adoption WILL NOT occur until graphene manufacture is perfected. This is a niche product, and it's intended purpose is identical to that of the current HoloLens - to improve manufacturing methods, refine the OS, and build out the ecosystem - in preparation for when it does get mass adopted, and graphene is cheap enough.

 

[Drael646464]

Paying 2 Gs for a folding Android phablet is crazy. Paying 2 Gs for Windows on ARM with the ability to also use it as a primary communications device without having to tote a tablet or 2-in-1 is pushing the boundaries of justifiable. I'm sure Road Warriors won't have an issue with this especially if they can convince their company to foot the bill. Having 1 less bag to get through TSA is almost worth the price of admission.

Well yeah, that should be pretty obvious. There's a niche market for a windows core device with a stylus - note-takers and people who are frequently "micro-productive", like journalists/media, people in meetings, salespeople, sketch artists etc.

I can see no real point at all in a 2,000 dollar dual screen android device. Nobodies going to pay that to watch Netflix or game, with a crease in the middle. And creaseless is many many years off (as soon as graphene is cheap to make, everyone will be able to do it at once).

Hell, people wouldn't pay 2,000 for a creaseless design if could only run android. Chrome I could understand. Android? No point.

And as I explain above, and seem to need to do repeatedly these days because people listen to rumour mills and don't know crap about the technology, creaseless screens are not on the cards this year, next year, or the year after.

If there is a tech breakthrough in the manufacture of graphene, because its a key technology to an entire nanotechnology tech revolution, it'll be all across every science magazine in existence, you won't miss it. A breakthrough in graphene manufacture -That would be bigger than the invention of the microprocessor.


I'm just going to list a few things graphene can be used for eventually, to give everyone an idea.

*No energy water desalination for hydrogen fuel and drinking water

*No energy water purification and environmental clean up
*Chemical manufacture

*Nanotubes for manfacturing, such as chemical printers, and eventually matter printers

*Super high efficiency solar panels resulting in a theoretical 150 percent increase in efficiency

*Tuneable lazer light

*Nano-battery technology for batteries you can fit in a flat bit of graphene plastic (ie computer paper batteries

*Nano circuitry and nano-chipsets, for CPU's you can fit in a flat bit of plastic (ie processors for computer paper)

Graphene can also be made to be basically bullet proof, so anything made with graphene will be close to indestructible which of course can also be used for planes, vehicles, space ships and so on.....

As you can see, if anyone comes up with a cheap way to make graphene, there is no way you could miss it if you pay any attention to technology.

Such a method of manufacture, would open the key to a doorway scientists have being dying to cross for over a decade - graphene will literally be one of the main keys to a good chuck of all human technology at some point.

So please A) stop moaning about a lack of flying cars/personal robots or folding screens B) Stop claiming Samsung or some other outfit is going to release a creaseless graphene design next year.

Be patient. Science takes time. We live in an amazing rich, and technology filled time, and will see many amazing advances in our lifetime. But they don't lurch from early studies and proto's into fully fledged consumer products to moment you hear about it and get a bit excited.

 

[Drael646464]

I'd personally put the sort of graphene OLED design Samsung and Microsoft co-developed hitting the _ENTERPRISE_ market at about 10-15 years. Consumer could be 20 years off. Maybe if they could fuse graphene and regular plastic screens that might be smaller. Still it's a long way off.

But first we have to get the manufacturing technique breakthrough. And when it happens, it won't be secret, it won't be some tech companies work, it'll be in a science lab, or a manufacturing plant and there will be no way you can miss it. Why? Because it can be used for so much. Even if MSFT or Samsung developed the manufacturing technique they announce it, because it could be licensed to everyone and their dog.

 

[nate0]

I'd personally put the sort of graphene OLED design Samsung and Microsoft co-developed hitting the _ENTERPRISE_ market at about 10-15 years. Consumer could be 20 years off. Maybe if they could fuse graphene and regular plastic screens that might be smaller. Still it's a long way off.

But first we have to get the manufacturing technique breakthrough. And when it happens, it won't be secret, it won't be some tech companies work, it'll be in a science lab, or a manufacturing plant and there will be no way you can miss it. Why? Because it can be used for so much. Even if MSFT or Samsung developed the manufacturing technique they announce it, because it could be licensed to everyone and their dog.

Ya when time, I want to start making this stuff in my garage.... Replace all the windows in my car with it.

 

[Drael646464]

Ya when time, I want to start making this stuff in my garage.... Replace all the windows in my car with it.
������

Why not, lol? You could have bullet proof glass and touch display in one. Provided it's cheap enough, of course, you could coat your house walls in it.

It'll be nice to be alive at that time, a time of optimism and imagination.

 

[Jcmg62]

Ah well, split screen foldable Andromeda it is then. Single screen still miles off.

Don't care, will still break open my wallet and pour the contents at Satya's feet

 

[Timbre70]

They can't even build a proper single screen device, now talking about folding screen.