The world of US patents often turns up curiosities that don’t work, but this particular one from Microsoft is of some interest. It details the creation and workings of a device that is capable of switching between a tablet and smartphone; complete with flexible display and folding hinges.
Microsoft’s patent details the device that uses several individual housings held together by a flexible hinge. This device would have a single continuous display stretched across all the housings. By default, this would be a tablet. It doesn’t quite say how many hinges would be involved in folding the device down to smartphone size, but the technical drawings show at least two being used.
We highly doubt that this is the greatly rumoured Surface Phone, if only because patents are often filed years before they become products. Not to mention that many patents don’t ever see the light of day.
