Patents were recently awarded to Samsung, and it wouldn’t be them if some sort of curved screen wasn’t involved. The patents are for a new “Note” smartphone and an “audio” device that could very well be Samsung’s challenge to the Amazon Echo, putting Bixby on a standalone device.
We all know what a disaster the Galaxy Note 7 turned out to be, so there is impetus on the Korean gadget giant to make the Note 8 exciting and fresh – if only to exorcise the demons of phone and battery explosions. Could this patent point to the direction for the Note 8? From the photos above and below, we’re looking at a very thin design – could Samsung pull this off with one of their phablet flagships?
The second patent is for an “audio” device, and you can see the images below. It looks like this device will have a display to go with it. Samsung will want to give people access to Bixby, and a standalone device such as the Amazon Echo is one way to go. Of course, design patents don’t explain the concept, so we’re just going to have to use our imaginations here as of now.
Again, these are still patents – and Samsung is not obligated in any way to bring these designs to market, just that they can use them if they wanted to. But would they want to? The phablet design above is still very much impractical, if we factor in the thinness to the space needs for battery – but if Samsung can incorporate a thin battery to it, why not?
VIA: Patently Mobile
