Someone needs to call Microsoft out on the BS of showing a device they admit will look different than what they showed off and it will be 12 months before it will ship. It’s basically vapor ware on stage just to get the writers at The Verge to wet their pants.
I feel like I'm the only one who wants a folding phone that expands to the size of a current smartphone. As opposed to taking a current phone and doubling it. I don't want a phone that is also a tablet, I was a phone that folds to half its size.
Looks interesting and it has me thinking about the creative ways that it could be used on a daily basis. One of the most cumbersome and limiting factors of a "smartphone for everything" mentality is that we lose the usability and utility from a more grounded setup (i.e. notebook, desktop). A multi-screen setup for my workstation at work is wonderful for productivity. I could see the same applying tor a smartphone. I can't be the only person that has been frustrated with the every-growing multitude of swipes and multi-finger gestures needed to wrestle around the multi-tasking functionality of existing smartphones.
I don’t do any swipes on my current phone. Otoh it doesn’t actually have a touch screen. It can make calls and run whatsapp so it’s enough for my phone needs.
Folding screens isn’t ready and is yet a solution looking for a problem. But its a bad solution. Literally a lose-lose proposition.
It's not a folding screen. It's a dual screen. Big difference. I'm willing to bet you'll be seeing many more devices like this in the next 5 years. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple produced some sort of dual screen laptop in the future. I could function as a combination touchscreen and keyboard.
Someone needs to call Microsoft out on the BS of showing a device they admit will look different than what they showed off and it will be 12 months before it will ship. It’s basically vapor ware on stage just to get the writers at The Verge to wet their pants.
Now I see why I've never liked iPads. It took Microsoft to make understand why. Clearly Apple is stuck in a design rut not only with iPads but virtually all of their products. It's become the same old thing every year with nothing more than tech spec upgrades. No real new ideas
Android was originally developed by Google as a buttress against Microsoft controlling the mobile space like they did desktop. 15 years later it's Microsoft embracing Android as the OS of choice for a new product line.
Microsoft's Surface Pro consists of two nine-inch displays on a 360-degree hinge, allowing the device to fold in half both ways.
I think they chose the wrong display size for the Neo. 9” isn’t big enough. 13” is the practical minimum for office automation, basically most types of digital work. If you want to display say Outlook or Word or Excel, I think your productivity will take a hit at 9” display sizes. Just to small to really use.
I’m all in on this type of form factor, and I’m not looking for any hardware keyboards either. Take two 12.9” iPads, hinge them together (Apple thought of this a long time ago, but obviously didn’t go to market), and I’ll happily type on glass. At 9” diagonal, just not big enough of a display surface for types of things most people do with tablets or PCs.
The folding form factors, or book or clamshell form factors, don’t have good screen ratios. If you are folding something in half or unfolding something to be 2x as big, there seems to be a too skinny problem in the folded position and too square in the unfolded position. It’s like a zone of death between 6” to 10” diagonal it is too cumbersome to use as a handheld and it is too small to display most PC software.
I’m tempting to think the rumored Moto Razr foldable is the best form factor maybe. The fold is along the short edge, where you can turn, say a 3:2 display to a 5:2 display, and the unfolding and folding can be done one handed.
Comments
Folding screens isn’t ready and is yet a solution looking for a problem. But its a bad solution. Literally a lose-lose proposition.
Android was originally developed by Google as a buttress against Microsoft controlling the mobile space like they did desktop. 15 years later it's Microsoft embracing Android as the OS of choice for a new product line.
I’m all in on this type of form factor, and I’m not looking for any hardware keyboards either. Take two 12.9” iPads, hinge them together (Apple thought of this a long time ago, but obviously didn’t go to market), and I’ll happily type on glass. At 9” diagonal, just not big enough of a display surface for types of things most people do with tablets or PCs.
The folding form factors, or book or clamshell form factors, don’t have good screen ratios. If you are folding something in half or unfolding something to be 2x as big, there seems to be a too skinny problem in the folded position and too square in the unfolded position. It’s like a zone of death between 6” to 10” diagonal it is too cumbersome to use as a handheld and it is too small to display most PC software.
I’m tempting to think the rumored Moto Razr foldable is the best form factor maybe. The fold is along the short edge, where you can turn, say a 3:2 display to a 5:2 display, and the unfolding and folding can be done one handed.