We know a new phone from Microsoft is on the way, but at this point details are sparse, so any new information is a welcome development.
In November, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told the Australia Financial Review that Microsoft is working on the “ultimate mobile device,” but beyond that, very little is known about the phone.
There’s a ton of rumours doing the rounds of course, but today we’ve got a brand new patent that could hint at the Surface Phone design.
Related: Surface Phone
This one comes via Microsoft watcher @h0x0d, who tweeted a link to a patent for a foldable device with a particulalry interesting approach to collapsible displays.
https://twitter.com/statuses/845056420580024320
Originally filed in 2015, the patent was made public yesterday and details a screen made up of several separate displays.
Microsoft has previously filed patents for devices with hinges, but this latest filing details both folding mobile devices and large, tiled displays.
Essentially, the company describes a multi-layered screen made up of panels with curved edges which sit below a single upper layer.
The idea is that the curves will make the whole display seem like a single panel by drawing light away from gaps in the tiles.
As the patent states: “In order to reduce and/or obscure the visibility of a support structure for a display panel, the present disclosure provides example display devices including curved or otherwise bent regions for directing light to a user’s eye when the user’s gaze is directed to a support structure at an edge of the display panel.
“In this way, when a user is viewing a region occupied by the support panel, the user may instead see light from the display panel showing the displayed objects.”
Of course, a patent is no guarantee of a consumer product actually hitting the market, so at this point we can’t confirm whether this particular design will be released.
We’re also unclear on whether the design will be used for a smartphone or not, so even if it does arrive in some form, it could be a tablet rather than a phone.
What do you think of the patent? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
