Why the once-gimmick dual-screen design has reached a dead end

The four corners of the grass are tied to your waist, and you are walking in the pot. This is the cattle war editor, and his salary has been spent, not a penny. The editor has been editing for a long time and brings this article to you. Let's eat and watch the fun.

In the field of smartphones, an ancient design is gradually being forgotten, and one of the initiators of this design, Yota Equipment Company, has declared bankruptcy. It is dual screen.

Different from conventional hardware upgrades in the industry, double-sided mobile phones headed by Yotai Phone seem to want to overtake them as soon as they appear, becoming a blocker and rewriter in the field of smartphones.

However, contrary to expectations, due to the influence of many factors such as insufficient application scenarios, too single selling points, poor software and hardware experience, insufficient design sense, and high prices, Yota mobile phone series products gradually faded out of the public and experienced a national ceremony. This product that once tried to change the industry has finally become a passerby in the history of smartphone development.

Nowadays, dual-screen mobile phones that can no longer make waves have re-entered the public's horizons to present s in a completely new way. At the same time, in the fields of laptops and smart TVs, dual-screen designs are also leading a new wave of design. Dual screen seems to be trying to take advantage of current black technology products. The successive releases of products such as Hisense 8K Pro dual-screen TV and ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 dual-screen gaming computer show that current brand manufacturers have a certain understanding of dual-screen design.

Manufacturers not only hope to explore a new round of market demand and consumption upgrades through dual-screen products, but also demonstrate their strong R&D capabilities, which can kill two birds with one stone. However, from the perspective of consumers, whether the huge price increase of dual-screen products can be exchanged for point-to-point experience upgrades may be the key to their popularity. For now, none of this is clear.

From feature phones to smartphones, dual-screen phones have failed.

In fact, the prototype of dual-screen mobile phones has been around for a long time, and has been everywhere since the era of feature phones when Nokia was king.

In 2001, Samsung launched the world's first clamshell dual-screen mobile phone SGH-A288. In the 2G era when feature phones were just getting started, the emergence of dual screens made the originally boring mobile phone design more interesting. As dual-screen mobile phones are gradually recognized by the market, dual-screen phones have officially become the mainstream design direction for feature phones.

At that time, dual-screen mobile phones mainly included two design methods. One is the classic RAZR V3 based on Samsung SGH-A288 and Motorola S. The main function of its external screen is to display time, text messages and other content, which is exactly the same as the external screen function of current folding screen mobile phones with vertical folding design.

Motorola RAZR V3 and the other one are side flip designs represented by Nokia 9300i. When closed, it is a small functional phone, and when opened, it forms a large-screen mobile phone like a small laptop. The design concept of its internal and external screens is somewhat similar to Samsung's first-generation foldable screen mobile phone Galaxy Fold.

Some people say that many of the designs of today’s smartphone photography systems are left over from Nokia, but if you carefully compare today’s design patterns with those of previous folding phones, you will be surprised to find that these are the legacy of Nokia. The era has already existed.

Nokia 9300i In an era when physical buttons were the main mode of interaction and flip phones led the fashion trend, the dual-screen design became a matter of course. The existence of the external screen also provided convenience for users’ daily use, whether it was viewing The time is still a text message reminder.

However, with the rise of touch-screen smartphones, candy bar phones have replaced flip phones as the mainstream design model, and dual screens have also disappeared. Probably the only one left is the Samsung W series.

At the end of 2012, YotaPhone took the lead in launching a prototype with an LCD screen on the front and an e-ink screen on the back, giving birth to a dual-screen mobile phone in the smartphone era. Although currently

Yotai Phone 3, no matter how hard Yotai devices or backward brands try, dual-screen phones will never become mainstream.

On the one hand, for the vast majority of consumers, regular mobile phone screens are sufficient to meet daily reading needs, and dual screens are useless; on the other hand, for real e-book lovers, dual screens The reading experience of the e-ink screen on the mobile phone is far inferior to that of mainstream e-readers such as Amazon Kindle. They would rather buy an ordinary mobile phone and a Kindle than buy one with four different ones. In addition, the lack of design sense is also one of the reasons.

Of course, in addition to this front and rear screen design model, in the early days of the rise of smartphones, many brands gave their own dual-screen design answers, but whether it was Fujitsu's rotatable built-in dual-screen mobile phone Or the Sony Xperia Tablet P dual-screen tablet will never make it onto the market.

There are two main reasons for the Sony Xperia Tablet P dual-screen tablet. The first is the lack of application scenarios. The application scenarios of dual-screen mobile phones are very limited, and it is impossible to fundamentally imitate the dual-screen application scenarios of PC products.

Secondly, there is a lack of application ecology, and software manufacturers are unwilling to invest huge amounts in research and development; the cost is to adapt software separately for dual-screen mobile phones that have not yet formed a climate, which is fatal to dual-screen mobile phones, thus forming a Vicious cycle between application ecology and scenarios.

However, with the increasing popularity of mobile games, dual-screen mobile phones seem to have found new application scenarios. But judging from current market feedback, it is extremely unlikely that game users will choose to buy expensive dual-screen mobile phones. They prefer to use traditional single-screen phones or Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo’s game “Super Mario: Odyssey” is now the only thing that can give dual-screen phones a glimmer of hope is foldable screen phones. This new category that integrates modern technology allows the dual-screen design to continue, but the future is unknown.

As well as the laptop TV, the successor of the dual-screen product.

Compared with dual-screen mobile phones, dual-screen laptops and dual-screen smart TVs seem to have tasted the benefits of dual-screen design.

The current notebook market mainly includes two types of dual-screen designs. One is dual-screen high-performance notebooks manufactured by traditional PC manufacturers such as ASUS and HP, and the other is based on Microsoft Surface Neo and Lenovo YOGA BOOK 2. The representative thin and light notebook.

The former and other Microsoft Surface Neo products are mainly positioned as high-performance gaming notebooks or gaming laptops. Its biggest feature is that a long touch secondary screen is placed above the keyboard, bringing a new experience such as dual-screen office, allowing mobile office to enjoy the high efficiency of dual-screen like desktop office.

Take the Zephyrus Duo 15 dual-screen gaming notebook just released by ASUS ROG as an example. It comes with a main screen with a maximum resolution of 4K or a maximum screen refresh rate of 300Hz, and a 14.3-inch strip touch screen with a resolution of 3840 x 1100 and a refresh rate of 60Hz. The latter is located above the keyboard and can be slightly raised at a deflection angle of 13, so that this screen can appear at the same time as the main screen.

Before the ASUS Zephyrus Duo 15, I had experienced ASUS’s previous generation dual-screen product, the Zenbook Pro Duo. Simply put, the biggest advantage of this dual-screen notebook is that it integrates the dual-screen office functions of a traditional desktop computer into a notebook computer. Once you get used to it, the second touch screen will make it easier to use office software such as Premiere. In addition, this screen also has the function of extending the home screen and duplicating the top screen.

In terms of thinness and lightness, most of these products change the original keyboard position to a second screen to realize more functions such as tablets. For example, the second screen of Lenovo YOGA BOOK 2 is a 10.8-inch 1080P resolution e-ink screen, which mainly includes five functions: virtual keyboard, handwriting pad, smart notes, reading, and screen display.

Lenovo YOGA BOOK 2 uses a second screen as a hand-painted tablet, which is about the convenience of dual screens for this type of product. Microsoft Vice President Brand Anderson also took to social media to praise the multitasking capabilities of its unreleased Surface Duo. The left screen lets him handle office duties, and the right screen lets him provide entertainment for the kids.

Dual-screen TVs are mainly Hisense’s recently released 8K Pro dual-screen TV 85U9E and TCL dual-screen QLED TV C10. Compared with the small screen below the latter, the former's 28-inch long secondary screen is larger and more convenient for daily use.

Hisense Pro Dual Screen TV 85U9E However, the dual screen TV has basically the same secondary screen functions, which can realize voice control, shopping takeout, real-time search, news push and other functions, and can become a smart home like a smart speaker control center.

Compared with traditional single-screen TVs, smart home control of dual-screen TVs will become more convenient and easier to use. Many smart home products are concentrated on this secondary screen, so that voice control operations will not affect the main screen.

To put it simply, dual-screen TV simplifies the usage scenarios that previously required turning off TV programs and turning on other functions, making smart TVs smarter and easier to use.

But no matter what type of dual-screen product it is, there is still a common problem, which is - yuan. For example, the listing price of ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 in the UK starts at 2,999.99 pounds, while the domestic price of Hisense 8K Pro dual-screen TV 85U9E is as high as 79,999 yuan, which makes it only a niche product rather than a mainstream mass product.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 Therefore, the biggest stumbling block to the development of dual-screen products is their expensive price. If Hisense releases a dual-screen TV that everyone can afford in the future, then dual-screen TVs will definitely become the mainstream in the future. This is what I said at the beginning of the article: Can the huge price increase of dual-screen products be exchanged for point-to-point experience upgrades?

In addition, the establishment of application ecology and the development of application scenarios are also important factors hindering the development of dual-screen products. Compared with dual-screen mobile phones, dual-screen laptops and TVs will obviously be easier to build in these two aspects.

To learn more about "Why the "dual-screen" design that was once full of gimmicks came to an end", please pay attention to the Deep Space Sports Information Column. The Deep Space Editor will continue to update you with more sports news.

Source: Deep Space Game Editor: Anonymous

Click to try Heart of the King 2