Microsoft's Surface hardware team is constantly filing patents for product designs, some of which see the light of day, but many of which do not. This week, a new patent from the Redmond giant was published that reveals the company was working on what appears to be a hinge design that could be used in a folding flip phone style device.
The patent specifically details the hinge design, which appears to allow for a folding screen to span both halves of a folding device. One of the patent drawings depicts a rectangular smartphone shape, similar to a Galaxy Flip or Motorola Razr.
The patent details a design for "hinged devices that have flexible displays. Consumers prefer compact devices, especially preferring thinner devices to thicker devices. As a result, many device components have to be positioned in a limited space. The present concepts provide a technical solution of a hinge assembly that occupies less device space than previous designs while satisfying hinge design parameters."
The patent document also mentions how folding displays have historically been quite fragile, and details how its design might mitigate this. "Flexible displays have been greatly anticipated for various applications, such as folding smart phone devices. However, adoption has been slow and initial products have experienced reliability issues."
The patent was filed in 2023, and while it doesn't reveal much, it does confirm that Microsoft was at some point experimenting with foldable screen mobile devices. We already know that Microsoft has unfortunately since scrapped any plans to ship a folding phone, and so this patent is likely a remnant of a bygone era for Surface.
Sources tell me that at one point, Microsoft was planning to ship both a Galaxy Fold style device and a non-folding slab smartphone. Both of these projects were canceled in mid 2023, and I understand that Microsoft has no plans to bring to market any more mobile phone type devices, at least for now.
That doesn't mean Microsoft can't reuse its hinge patents in other product form factors in the future, but the likelihood of a Surface folding phone being released anytime soon is incredibly slim. The company doesn't even have an active Android OS team anymore, and there appears to be no effort to bring Windows back to the phone form factor either.
Still, one can dream.
