Will 2022 be the year of folding smartphones?

Those who know me know that folding smartphones and any other proposal that breaks the form factor seem fine to start with. Thus, the launches that I have celebrated the most this year have been the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3, in the same way as last year’s LG proposal with the LG WING, which was to be the first step of its ambitious Explorer project, which finally came to nothing with LG’s exit from the smartphone market.

With the exit of LG from the market, for a time, it seemed that experimentation in this regard had been, almost exclusively, in the hands of Samsung. And yes, we have indeed been talking about a hypothetical and highly rumored folding iPhone for years, but the years go by, and we still do not know anything. Maybe in 2022? Maybe, but that, just perhaps. Until now, folding smartphones seemed like a tremendously complex pool, which only Samsung had dared to jump into.

However, and as we have learned this week, it is confirmed that Oppo has also decided to cheer up with its previously leaked Oppo Find N and that it has already been announced and will be presented next week. Although their arrival dates to the market are yet to be confirmed, we will say goodbye to 2021 with a new option in this regard, which already invites us to think that folding smartphones do have a future.

This is the exquisitely engineered #OPPOFindN.
Hold. Fold. Enjoy. Repeat.
Coming December 15. #OPPOINNODAY2021 pic.twitter.com/LVZKNgYiAv

— OPPO (@oppo) December 9, 2021

But this is nothing compared to what 2022 could prepare us. And, as we can read in MSPowerUser, next year will bring us at least one manufacturer that renews its bet in this market, and another that debuts in the same with a proposal that could be different.

The first is, surely you have already imagined it, Huawei, which would take over from the Huawei Mate X2 presented earlier this year. According to the leaks, the new Huawei terminal would be similar to the Galaxy Z Fold3. Although Huawei’s situation has suffered due to its problems with the US administration, the company makes exciting proposals, which is much appreciated.

As for the second company to join folding smartphones, we are talking about Vivo, and the leak offers a very ambiguous clue, stating that it will have a more prominent fold. What do you mean? I would love to know, but I admit it has caught me out of the game. However, if Vivo deviates from the model proposed by the Samsung model, that may mean even more novelty for the field of folding smartphones.

And this is what we know when 2021 is not over yet. More folding smartphones may be announced throughout 2022, which will pose a problem for software developers, who will have to find a way to adapt to new factors in form, but that promises a paradigm shift that I have been waiting for a long time.