DELL

XPS 15 with a foldable dual-screen OLED display could be a reality in the near future

Dell's patent for a dual-display device was published by the WIPO last week detailing how the OEM plans to address some of the shortcoming of foldable displays such as consistency in brightness, color, and contrast levels. The patent also talks about addressing the problem of flexible OLED screen burn-in indicating that Dell is indeed working on releasing a foldable OLED dual-display laptop in the near future.
Despite all their quirks, foldable displays have managed to cause quite the stir ever since the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Fold and the Huawei Mate X. While the technology is still yet to mature for smartphones, laptop OEMs have started considering foldable designs for the future as well.
Shortly after Lenovo introduced the ThinkPad X1 with a foldable dual-screen display in May, Dell's then VP of XPS and Alienware Frank Azor indicated that the company was indeed experimenting with such a device. LetsGoDigital has now accessed a patent published on September 12, 2019, which was filed by Dell with the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) in March 2018.
The patent talks of a device with two displays connected by a narrow hinge. That's not really new, but the patent also talks about a continuous foldable display with focus on display characteristics such as brightness, color, and contrast, and how color shifts can happen in different parts of the display. The patent also talks about addressing the problem of flexible OLED screen burn-in.
Of course, a foldable Dell XPS laptop is still quite sometime away from reality. Although Azor did claim back then that Dell was "95 percent of the way there", a lot of work needs to be done on the software side of things to enable a seamless workflow. The issue of getting the keyboard and battery mend according to the display fold needs to be figured out as well. 

by Vaidyanathan Subramaniam