Tag Archives: Screen

ASUS Zenfone 9 could be the mini flagship you’ve been waiting for

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They were ridiculed at first, especially by those from Apple’s camp, but the gigantic phones previously known as “phablets” have become the norm today. Naturally, there are now people wishing for the old days, with phones that don’t like they want to jump out of your hand and drop to the ground. These compact or mini phones are becoming rare, especially among the more premium smartphone models. Once in a while, however, there does come something that bucks the trend and offers something that seems to answer those cries. Based on an accidental leak from the manufacturer itself, the ASUS Zenfone 9 could very well be that blast from the past that you’ve been waiting to happen for a very long time.

Designer: ASUS

Smartphone design has always been a matter of making compromises. After all, you can’t throw everything, including the kitchen sink, inside a device that should still fit in your pocket. Today’s breed of smartphones almost make that impossible with their extra-large screens, and foldable phones were conceived as another form of compromise. Of course, one could just adopt a slightly smaller screen, and ASUS seems to be going old-school with its next high-end flagship.

Granted, 5.9 inches is hardly small compared to iPhones before the 2019 iPhone 11, but it’s significantly smaller compared to today’s premium devices. While it does mean that it has a more compact and handier size, it also means there’s less space to view content, especially with rather sizable bezels around the screen. To some extent, ASUS is prioritizing ergonomics over functionality, which seems to go in line with its vision of using the Zenfone 9 as a sports action camera with the right accessories.

The phone also has a headphone jack, something that has become almost extinct in smartphone designs. Even the modular and repairable Fairphone 4 has eschewed this connection in favor of a single USB-C port for both charging and audio output. With the Zenfone 9, however, you won’t have to ignore your wired audio equipment or spend for an adapter that you will often lose. It’s a subtle yet important feature for those who aren’t in the market to buy new speakers or headphones. And despite that gaping hole, the phone still boasts the highest dust and water resistance rating for its kind.

Unfortunately, the compact size of the Zenfone 9 makes the two cameras look even bigger than they would normally be, like two bulging eyes peeking from the phone’s back. As mentioned, ASUS seems to be aiming for practicality and ergonomics rather than aesthetics, and the Zenfone 9 won’t be a looker, at least not in a good way. In exchange, however, the phone’s main camera is being promoted to have 6-axis stabilization, which makes it a good tool for recording sports or active scenes. Given its smaller size, it would give you a better grip to make that happen as well.

Since the promotional video was taken down, it’s not entirely certain whether this is the final form of the ASUS Zenfone 9 or just an early concept. Given the mainline Zenfone’s history, it’s not that far from reality and could be the real deal. It’s definitely an outlier in the smartphone market, so it’s good that consumers still have a choice when looking for these rare features. Hopefully, next year’s Zenfone will be able to deliver the same things but in a more aesthetically pleasing package.

The post ASUS Zenfone 9 could be the mini flagship you’ve been waiting for first appeared on Yanko Design.

Motorola wrap-around display phone concept is pretty but also pretty impractical

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A phone that’s almost 100% screen has some benefits, but the ergonomic and practical concerns could outweigh those.

Most of the time we spend on our smartphones is, of course, spent on the screen. It is, after all, the primary point of interaction and feedback on modern mobile devices. Despite its importance, the screen actually covers less than half of a phone’s surface, which some might consider being a waste of space. Unsurprisingly, phone makers have been trying to come up with ways to take advantage of all the places where you can put a display on the phone, and Motorola’s patent reveals how that beautiful but unusual design can actually become useful.

Designer: Parvez Khan (Technizo Concept) for LetsGoDigital

Phones with displays that wrap around the body and leave almost nothing uncovered are right up there with foldable phones, transparent displays, and holograms that spark people’s imaginations. Given how small phones are compared to laptops or even tablets, it’s understandable that manufacturers and consumers will want to take advantage of every piece of real estate available on the pocketable device. Motorola is hardly the first to try, but it is one of the few to go the extra mile and explain why you might want to have an all-display phone.

Flexibility will be the name of the game for a phone where there is practically no front or back. No matter how you pull it out from your pocket or your back, that side facing you will always be the front, and the software will adjust the elements on the screen to match. You might not even have to fully pull out the phone, as long as you can see a small part of the screen. Again, the software could adjust the user interface elements, so you can immediately see who’s calling and swipe to reject or accept the call, even if only the “bottom” part of the phone is visible from your pocket.

Such a phone with a wrap-around display will have to do more work than most phones to pull this off. For one, it will need to use a variety of sensors to determine which direction the phone is facing in a pocket. The software running on the phone needs to be especially dynamic, as it needs to shift UI elements around to match the position and orientation of the phone. There are no physical volume controls, for example, and the phone will have to know on which side to place those depending on how a person is holding it.

Those might be easier to pull off than resolving some usability and ergonomic concerns that an all-screen phone might introduce. Phones whose screens curve off to the sides are sometimes criticized for accidental taps from palms for fingers. An all-screen phone might not have room for cameras either, and the current state of under-display cameras still leaves a lot to be desired. And then there’s the problem that dropping the phone on any side can actually damage the screen, knocking scores off its repairability and sustainability.

The post Motorola wrap-around display phone concept is pretty but also pretty impractical first appeared on Yanko Design.

Samsung’s future vision is filled with screens that fold and bend

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We’ll be seeing displays everywhere in the future, but some of them might be more than meets the eye.

We are already living in a screen-centric world. We do our work on computers, get our entertainment from TVs, and connect with other people through our smartphones. Even activities like reading books, listening to music, and staying healthy have become connected with devices like eBook readers, portable media players, and smartwatches. It probably won’t be a surprise if we one day wake up to a world filled with screens left and right, but Samsung is working to make those displays more interesting and, more importantly, more eco-friendly.

Designer: Samsung Display

Samsung is perhaps best known around the world for its smartphones and its TVs, and the company has been pushing the boundaries of its display technology for those consumer tech products over the past years. The most famous and most recent examples are perhaps the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, currently considered the standard for foldable phones. Unsurprisingly, the company won’t be stopping there and will be bending and folding every display it can for almost any device.

On the mobile device side, Samsung showed off what it calls “Flex G” and “Flex S” displays that would allow an even bigger, tablet-sized screen to fold down to the size of a smartphone. Samsung will also be targeting laptops with its “Flex Note” screen, where a 17.3-inch display can fold in the middle to form a laptop with two 13-inch screens. The goal of these foldable displays, aside from boasting of the company’s prowess, is to increase people’s mobility without hampering their productivity, letting them bring along their work and entertainment anywhere.

You might have actually seen these before if you’ve been keeping tabs on unique and interesting display devices in the past years, but Samsung also brought something completely new to CES 2022. It showed off a smart speaker that seemed to have a cylindrical screen wrapped around it. But at the tap of a button on a paired smartphone, that screen unfurls and turns into a regular flat-screen panel, turning the smart speaker into a smart TV.

With LG’s vision of transparent screens and Samsung’s future shape-changing displays, we can probably expect our world to soon be littered with these bright surfaces in whatever form they may come in. That, however, might also mean an overall increase in power usage and carbon footprint, something that Samsung is thankfully aware of. Part of the company’s big spiel this year is on sustainability through its entire pipeline, from production to packaging.

For example, it is pushing its Eco2 OLED technology that reduces power consumption by removing unnecessary components. It recently also revealed a remote control that charges via Wi-Fi waves instead of electricity. With these, Samsung is trying to promise a future that is not only all about displays but, hopefully, also green.

The post Samsung’s future vision is filled with screens that fold and bend first appeared on Yanko Design.

Finally, a book designed to help you stop doomscrolling on your phone

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A quick Google Trends search will show you that the first instance of the term ‘Doomscrolling’ dates back to April 2020. The word was coined at the starting of the global lockdown following the pandemic, to mean “the act of consuming a large quantity of negative online news, typically without pause, to the detriment of the mental health of the person consuming it.”

It’s no secret that smartphones are designed to be addictive and bad for your mental health. Couple this with lockdowns, confinement, and isolation, and you’ve got a pretty bad combination on your hands… quite literally on your hands! Goodbye Phone, Hello World was published to help take that device from out of your hands and give you back control of your happiness and overall mental health. The book, which combines beautiful illustrations and bite-sized pieces of text (for an easy transition), is filled with ‘ideas, wit, and wisdom to help you break away from technology and get back to living’. Within its covers lie 60 different exercises to help you find happiness, inner peace, and break away from the addictive activity that is staring at your phone. Yes, I get the irony behind you probably reading this on your phone..!

Author: Paul Greenberg

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LG will demo a ‘bendable’ OLED gaming monitor at CES 2021

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In addition to several transparent OLED demos, LG Display will also be showing off a gaming-related concept product at its CES 2021 virtual showroom: a 48-inch 4K “Bendable CSO (Cinematic Sound OLED) display” that can switch between a flat screen and...

Netflix puts free documentaries on YouTube for students and teachers

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To help teachers and students learning from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Netflix is making a handful of documentaries available for free on its Netflix US YouTube channel. At the moment, there are 10 documentary films and series available, incl...