Microsoft discontinued its foldable gadgets – often called Floor Duo – in 2023. Nonetheless, the corporate is claimed to have tried one final shot at a folding cellphone, and reportedly developed a Floor Duo 3 earlier than scrapping it. A just lately found patent means that the following technology Floor system would have appeared like, with a single steady show and a kickstand on the again. This improvement comes after the invention of an analogous patent in March which advised that the Floor may but have a Lazarus second.
Microsoft Floor Duo 3 design revealed by US patent
Based on a patent software found by PatentlyApple, Microsoft could have scrapped plans for a tool that would have grow to be the Floor Duo 3. The patent reveals that it might have featured a single steady show – a giant change from the dual-screen Floor Duo which by no means correctly took off and was shut down by the corporate final yr.
Microsoft’s foldable system, as per the patent doc
Photograph Credit score: US Patent and Trademark Workplace/Microsoft
The system would have featured a magnetically hooked up kickstand on the again, enabling the person to position it on a desk vertically or horizontally, with out requiring any third-party equipment or circumstances. The patent additionally suggests a triple digital camera setup behind the foldable system with a module comparable in form to Apple’s iPhone Professional fashions. One other design aspect of the system would have been its energy button, which might be used to unfold it. In principle, this might have made opening it manually redundant.
The patent is claimed to have been filed with the US Patent and Trademark Workplace on June 20. Though it was filed for a “kickstand for opening foldable computing system”, it mentions a tool with a “versatile” show with help hinges which might fold 180 levels. This system is alleged to be the now-cancelled Floor Duo system. Notably, it was revealed a number of months in the past that Microsoft discarded plans for the same system which it codenamed Mission Neon.
Apparently, the patent software additionally mentions one other system with a versatile show with help hinges that may be rotated 360 levels in order that the only steady show is face-to-face.