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HP is Working on a 17-inch Foldable PC, Report Says (arstechnica.com) 27

Posted by msmash from the up-next dept.
While smartphones are having fun with the trend, PCs with foldable screens have yet to become mainstream, partially because there's only one option readily available. But with HP expected to enter the scene, it's possible 'foldable OLED' could become more common laptop lingo. From a report: Lenovo made the bold first step into foldable laptops with its 13.3-inch ThinkPad X1 Fold. According to South Korean electronics website TheElec, HP's take on foldable OLED will be bigger, with a 17-inch panel from LG Display that measures 11 inches when folded up. HP hasn't publicly announced or commented on the rumored PC, but a couple of details make the machine seem at least somewhat plausible. For one, LG Display confirmed work on a 17-inch foldable OLED laptop design in January. Most recently, TheElec on Monday reported that South Korean company SK IE Technology will make transparent polyimide films to cover the bendy 4K OLED panels. The publication also claimed that LG Display currently has plans to make up to "around 10,000" foldable OLED panels for HP, starting in Q3.
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HP is Working on a 17-inch Foldable PC, Report Says More

HP is Working on a 17-inch Foldable PC, Report Says

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  • Clamshell has endured for 40 years (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @03:12PM (#62463256) Homepage Journal

    The clamshell form factor of laptops has been with us for 40 years. Not because we haven't considered other form factors, we have. It's because once you want a keyboard and screen that you can use on any surface including an actual lap connecting them with a stiff hinge makes a lot of practical sense.

    Transforming laptops-tablet hybrids were an interesting idea when tablets were a hot item. And maybe you could make one with a foldable display that is just as good as a laptop. But it will always be a compromise against a pure tablet in terms of weight and cost.

    • ....and in what universe will this top-end foldable display technology be anywhere near as good as any of the alternative top-end display technologies?

      Only an implausible universe.

      The problem remains that there isnt much of a use case for adding simple folding. Therefore its a downgrade.

      Turn this shit into something much more like a stretchable fabric (variable dot pitch, arbitrarily sized displays...) and then you can start seeing some real use cases. Manufacturers would love such a thing even when m

      • Re:Clamshell has endured for 40 years (Score:4, Insightful)

        by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @07:10PM (#62463912) Homepage Journal

        ....and in what universe will this top-end foldable display technology be anywhere near as good as any of the alternative top-end display technologies?

        My experience is in flexible eInk displays from the early 2010's and not foldable OLED displays today. But there were some advantages and disadvantages to the technology back then. You could get much thinner and lighter panels. You could use pressure-touch sensors (for "reasons") and haptic feedback behind the panel (neat!). The visual quality was worse in some ways and better in others. As I was dealing with a reflective display (electrophoretic display tech in this case) having the usual glass and touch sensor layers on top reduced the optical clarity of the display, a situation that is less problematic with an emissive display like OLED. I use the comparison because the TFT layer of E Ink displays is adapted straight out of the LCD industry, which is how the manufacturing of panels took off so suddenly and the prices fell so fast.

        In marketing a foldable display it is not going to be about having the best possible image quality, but simply having a satisfactory one. We're there already, at a price.
        Next is if the cost of the foldable displays can come down enough to satisfy the premium that an in-demand form factor can bring. I think that's what this article is about.
        One day we will probably have flexible display if not fodable displays at parity in consume grade quality and price with conventional glass. My original question is, are any of the form factors unlocked by a theoretically cheap foldable display really of any use? ... some use in the right niche, but I don't see it transforming clamshell laptop designs. It's a solution in search of a problem.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by zlives ( 2009072 )

          I can see the use case of a roll up display tech where you can roll out the needed realestate.

    • The clamshell form factor of laptops has been with us for 40 years. Not because we haven't considered other form factors, we have. It's because once you want a keyboard and screen that you can use on any surface including an actual lap connecting them with a stiff hinge makes a lot of practical sense.

      It's almost as if you've never seen the Thinkpad X1 fold.

      https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]

  • I already have a foldable 17 inch laptop. It is 4 years old now. Still works.

  • Foldable? (Score:3)

    by radaos ( 540979 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @03:21PM (#62463284) Homepage
    A "foldable" PC you say? What an age we live in. Oh wait...

    • It's really innovative! And thanks to this "fold", they even manage to fit a keyboard on it!

      oh wait...

    • A "foldable" PC you say? What an age we live in. Oh wait...

      I can picture certain specialized applications. Say you invert the fold, so the screens are on the outside. Picture a foldable tablet, with one part of the screen facing the customer and the other part facing the salesperson, across a desk or counter.

  • ....but why?
    I mean, if you're going to watch video or something how actually big do you need the screen to be?

    • We musicians will love it. I can view two full pages of music scores, side-by-side, in one compact device? Heaven!

      I would imagine that anyone who needs to work with drawings, diagrams, or big virtual control surfaces will love it, too. The bluetooth keyboard means you don't have to place the input device on the same plane as the display, another big plus. Any time you need a big information display and you're not sitting at a desk, you're gonna wish you had one of these.

  • origami the thing into folding into 1/2 the width of an existing 17" laptop, that would be cool. I've no idea how you'd pull that off. I think I've heard of folding keyboards. I always go for the 17's and like the large screen for coding. But they are cumbersome to carry. The article had no photo of the hp so no idea how the thing is going to fold.
  • It worked great until I had to unfold it.

  • I've not seen the current laptops that offer folding screens, but isn't there a visible seam where the fold is? I know a lot of people get picky about permanent visual artifacts on screen.

    Not to say that no-one would want them, but I wonder if that aspect would limit the target audience a bit to some specific categories.

  • the fact that HP have done almost zero innovation in 17 years (Carly Fiorina put the last nails in that coffin way back). The idea is terrible, but hopefully this is a change in strategy and we'll see some interesting stuff come through the company.

  • My OLED phones (some Pixel 3as ) had significant burn in at about 2 years old at the top and bottom of the screen. (i didn't keep track closely).

    For TVs maybe. for monitors i'd skip it for now.

    There's not much about this online but at least some corroboration:
    https://www.pcworld.com/articl... [pcworld.com]

  • And it was even made by HP.

    It's called a 17 inch ZBook, and it says "mobile workstation" on the back.
  • They try so hard to invent something after some other idea has established itself as a good solution to a particular set of needs or problems. They tried it with weird form power supplies, angled motherboards. And with buying up messiest of messy software, for example Service Manager 7-9, Dialogue Exstream and others. Then making them even more messy by easy quickfixes and totally screwed interfaces as well as backend. As soon as I see their name, I know there will be weirdest inconveniences nobody else co

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