Why is Samsung working on a gaming-focused smartphone? Will the innovative approach to the controls herald a new wave of gamers coming to Android? And is this new design the source of all the talk around folding smartphone?
A new design of Galaxy smartphone has been revealed in a recently published patent titled “Mobile device with touchscreen and method of controlling the same”. Reported by Ilse Jurrien, the patent describes a hinged handset which opens and closes much like a book, but the two sections can pivot through 360 degrees and sit back to back. What this handset is not is the oft-discussed hinged smartphone with a flexible screen around the hinge.
Instead this handset (labelled as a Galaxy handset in the patent images) is made from two physically separate screens which rely on sensors in the hinge to allow the software to reflect the relationship between them. When fully closed both screens are protected inside the book-like cover; when opened the first screen will turn on past a specific angle with the second toggle able through software; and of course when the device is ‘fully flat’ you can have two separate screens running different processes, or a single continuous tablet like desktop.
Curiously, many of the illustrations and methods described in the patent talk about the multimedia and gaming potential of the hinged handset. There are discussions on using the second screen as a touch-based controller which is configurable depending on the game being played, using it as a trackpad style input area, and hints that the device could be compatible with the S Pen stylus, familiar to users of the Galaxy Note series.
Although Samsung has given the Note series a partial focus on enterprise usage, the South Korean company has not had a recent device focused on media and gaming. In fact mobile gaming has generally been something that devices like the high specification Galaxy S handsets have used in marketing campaigns, rather than as dedicated devices.
As with every patent, the publication of the patent does not mean that a device is ready to be released, but it does mean that the idea has been considered at one point inside a company. And with the likes of Razer entering the Android market with a gaming focused smartphone, Samsung may want to test the waters with a gaming-focused device that does not take too much PR capital away from the flagship S and Note handsets.
The question now is if all the noise around a folding smartphone that has been attributed to a flexible screen is instead a Galaxy gaming device derived from this patent.
Now read more about Samsung’s plans for the Galaxy S9 design…
