Rumor: Apple and Foxconn are testing foldable iPhone prototypes

Apple has sent prototypes of a foldable iPhone to manufacturer Foxconn, a Chinese newspaper reports. It would be foldable models with an OLED screen or a micro LED screen, the rumor reports.

Among other things, it is being tested whether the hinge can be folded a hundred thousand times without breaking, reports Economic Daily News. The screens would come from Samsung. It is unknown whether it is a folding screen or a smartphone with two screens with a hinge in between, such as the Microsoft Surface Duo.

Apple would prepare the release of the prototype for the 2022 generation of iPhones. It is not the first time that rumors have appeared this year about a prototype of a folding iPhone. Jon Prosser reported in June that there is a prototype with more than one screen.

As a screen technology, Apple would consider oled or microled. All current iPhones have curved OLED screens. As with many other more expensive smartphones, the screen is bent in the housing to limit the screen edge at the bottom, while the screen is flat for the user.

Microled is a screen technology with small LEDs. Screens with micro LEDs do not require a backlight, the LEDs themselves emit light as individual pixels. They share properties with OLEDs, but unlike those LEDs, they do not use organic material, but gallium nitride, for example. The technique is not yet in use for displays in consumer electronics.

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