年或是摺疊手機年 你喜歡哪種摺疊方式？

下一個手機打算買什麼樣的？攝像功能更好的，電池壽命更長的，還是——可摺疊的手機？這種高科技新產品折起來就是普通手機大小，鋪開來則相當於平板電腦，以後再也不用擔心屏幕太小不夠用了！三星、華爲、摩托羅拉不久都將推出各自的可摺疊手機，不論你買還是不買，2019年都將是可摺疊手機大放異彩的一年。

If you’ve bought a phone in the last decade or so, it’s likely you’ve bought an increasingly nice rectangle.

如果你的手機是過去十年間買的，那麼應該是個不斷完善的長方形。

Other than sharper screens, better cameras, or improved battery life, there really haven’t been any massive changes to the structure of the smartphone in over 10 years now. But it seems like 2019 is set to buck the trend.

過去十多年來，除了屏幕越來越清晰、攝像功能越來越出色、電池壽命越來越長，智能手機的外部結構並沒有什麼大變化。不過，2019年似乎要逆轉這一趨勢。

Recently, we’ve had squeezy phones, curved phones, notched phones, and now, we are getting bendable phones. Unlike the gimmicks of years past, these might have some value.

近些年來，我們有了可擠壓手機、曲面屏手機、凹面屏手機，如今，我們又將迎來可摺疊手機。和過去幾年的那些個噱頭不同，可摺疊手機或許有一些價值。

gimmick['ɡɪmɪk]: n. 騙人的玩意；花招

There have been some early indications about where phone makers have been heading. Companies like Samsung and LG have shown off flexible displays at trade shows for years, leading some to believe that there would be a future where we’d roll up our phones like a newspaper. That future has been slow-moving, but this year at the CES electronics trade show in Las Vegas, electronics manufacturer Royole showed off the FlexPai, which it calls the first “fully flexible display” electronic device. In plain English: that’s a smartphone that folds out into a tablet.

早前已經有跡象顯示手機制造商即將往這一方向發展。三星和LG等公司多年來一直在貿易展上展出可彎曲顯示屏，促使一些人認爲未來我們將能像卷報紙一樣把手機捲起來。雖然這個未來到來得有點慢，但是今年在拉斯維加斯的國際消費電子展上，電子產品製造商柔宇展出了柔性屏手機FlexPai，據稱是首款“完全可摺疊顯示屏”的電子產品。簡而言之，就是可以平鋪開來變成平板電腦的智能手機。

Even though it’s being folded over itself, the FlexPai’s display doesn’t snap or bruise—which, definitely don’t try with your current phone’s display. It’s meant to replace the need for two devices, by being two devices in one. A developer model of the phone is available now, for a paltry $1,318.

FlexPai的顯示屏即使被對摺也不會折斷或損壞，這一點是你眼下的手機顯示屏所無法企及的。這意味着你不再需要同時持有手機和電腦兩種設備了，因爲二者可以合二爲一。目前你可以買到這款手機的開發版，僅需1318美元（8880元人民幣）。

paltry['pɔltri]: 微小的; 微不足道的

But Royole isn’t the only one experimenting with this form factor. Samsung, the world’s largest phone manufacturer, plans to release a folding phone this year, which it teased in late 2018. It showed off a prototype of the device, seemingly encased in a housing to hide its real shape, which seems to work similarly to Royole’s, except that the screens will be on the inside, like a book.

但是柔宇不是唯一一家嘗試可摺疊顯示屏的製造商。世界最大手機制造商三星在2018年末放出消息說，計劃在今年推出可摺疊手機。三星展示了這款手機的一個原型，該產品被裝在一個殼子中，無法看清其真實形狀，但似乎操作方法和柔宇的手機類似，只不過三星的顯示屏在內側，就像一本書一樣。

It’s hosting an event in San Francisco on Feb. 20, so it’s possible that we’ll learn more about the device then, and rumors suggest that the massive device will cost upwards of $1,500.

三星將於2月20日在舊金山舉行發佈會，屆時我們將瞭解到更多關於這款手機的信息，據傳這款大屏設備定價將超1500美元。

And on Jan. 23, we saw the first peek at the Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi’s attempt at a folding phone, in the hands of its cofounder Bin Lin. Unlike other foldables, it has two wings that bend behind the middle of the display.

1月23日，中國電子產品巨頭小米研發的可摺疊手機首次亮相，並由總裁林斌親自展示。和其他可摺疊手機不同，小米的可摺疊手機兩側向背面的中部摺疊。

Bin Lin posted on Weibo, saying that the company solved a series of difficult technical challenges to get to the prototype, and if consumers are interested, the company will consider turning it into a commercial product.

林斌在微博上稱，小米攻克了一系列技術難關才做出了這個原型機。如果消費者有興趣的話，小米會考慮將其轉化爲商品。

繼小米之後，華爲也對旗下摺疊屏手機產品進行了官宣。在1月24號舉辦的5G大會上，華爲手機負責人餘承東表示，華爲摺疊屏手機將會在一個月後舉辦的2019巴塞羅那世界移動通信展會上正式發佈。同時，餘承東也強調，華爲摺疊屏手機將會支持5G上網功能。

Motorola (which is owned by Chinese tech firm Lenovo), is reportedly also working on a foldable device, resurrecting the RAZR brand that brought the company so much popularity in the pre-iPhone days. A report from the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 16 suggested the phone could drop as soon as February, and cost around $1,500. Registration submitted to the World Intellectual Property Organisation suggest that it could look quite similar to the original phone, which was released in 2004.

據報道，中國科技企業聯想旗下的摩托羅拉也在研發可摺疊手機，意圖復興RAZR（刀鋒）型號。在蘋果手機還未誕生的年代，這一經典型號的手機曾經讓摩托羅拉大受歡迎。《華爾街時報》1月16日的報道稱，這款摩托羅拉新手機最早可能在二月投放市場，定價約爲1500美元。提交到世界知識產權組織的註冊材料顯示，這款新手機的外觀可能與2004年上市的RAZR型號很相似。

And we’re only in January. The mobile world’s two largest trade shows, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) in Berlin, are in February and September respectively, so it’s likely we’ll hear a lot more about bendy phones—sorry, foldables—before long.

現在纔剛一月份而已。移動世界最大的兩個貿易展——巴塞羅那的世界移動通信展會和柏林的國際電子消費品展覽會分別將在二月和九月舉行，到時候我們將聽到關於可摺疊手機的更多消息。

Whether anyone will actually want to replace their smartphone with a thicker, more expensive device just to have a larger screen is unclear. But that future is quickly arriving.

是否有人想把自己的智能手機換成這種更厚更貴更大屏的手機還是未知數。不過我們很快就能知道了。