Tech Talk S02 E10: Samsung’s New Flip Phone, Mobile World Congress

We think of technology as flip phones and smartwatches, but it’s also being used to stop poachers across the globe. We’ve got the scoop on the latest flip phone and more on LA NPDT Tech Talk where we bring you the latest in science and technology and update you on gadgets and innovations across the globe. If you like our podcast, please take a minute to review us on your favorite platform. Now, let’s get to today’s news.

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip phone just came out this past Friday, and so far, reviews are pretty favorable. The glass screen holds its own with just a slight, barely visible crease in the center when open. It’s mostly noticeable be running your finger along the screen and feeling it there.

Samsung says the fold is good for 200,000 flips, or approximately 5 years of use. What we don’t yet know is how the fold itself will hold up. Samsung incorporated hairlike fibers to keep dust and debris away from the fold, but eventually, build up of dust will start to hamper the hinge mechanism.

The tiny cover display allows you to view messages and your main phone icons like the Wi-Fi icon, missed call icon, other notifications, and the alarm. At only 1.1 inch diagonal, it isn’t good for much else. The Galaxy Z Flip has two cameras, and the wide angle camera does a fantastic job of making selfies look natural.

The phone has 2 battery cells, working together and the Flip is small enough that the charge could theoretically last all day, but two batteries are less efficient than one, so this may not be the case when you really start using the phone. Time will tell.

The tech show, held in Spain, has been canceled this year amid Coronavirus fears, leaving mobile vendors scrambling. The show had over 2000 vendors that were planning to attend.

Smaller vendors use this conference to showcase their new products, send out press releases, and make deals with the large mobile networks who sell their products.

While the show being canceled won’t hurt larger companies like Samsung and Apple, smaller companies are going to have to find a new way to get deals with the big players like Verizon and AT&T. The conference was scheduled for Feb 24-27.

chnology being used to help guard its beloved animals. Poachers in the region work hard to try to get around what is known as Postcode Meerkat, a solar-powered, camouflaged system of radars, cameras, and sensors. These sensors can tell the difference between a person and an animal and have an infrared sensor attached.

If the system senses a person in the park after dark, it alerts park rangers to their presence. The purpose? To keep out poachers that are looking to hunt the National Park’s Rhinos.

The Rhino horn is a sign of wealth in some counties, and in others, it is believed to have medicinal properties. Poachers get paid good money for these horns; however, Black Rhinos are on the endangered list and White Rhinos aren’t far behind.

Since launching the Meerkat’s there has been an 80% decrease in poaching where the technology is present. There are plans to install more Meerkats throughout the park where needed, and since the technology is portable, it can be moved to the site of poacher activity. Saving the Rhino is helping the tourism industry in the park.

And that brings us to the end of today’s Tech Talk, brought to you by LA New Product Development Team. Stay tuned next week for more developments in the product world, as we keep digging through the maze of technology that floods the web. Don’t forget to drop your rating at the Alexa Skill Store, or your other favorite platform. Keep listening for shout outs as we start seeing your reviews roll in. Thanks for listening!

The Galaxy Z Flip's ultra-thin glass was the news, but foldable phone durability is decided by a stack of parts working together: the cover layer, the adhesive under it, the display panel, the hinge and the brush or gasket that keeps grit out of the fold. A failure in any one of them ends the product's life, and each is a different engineering discipline. This is the classic hardware problem — the weakest interface sets the specification.

Manufacturers quote 200,000 folds, which sounds like a lifetime and is: roughly 100 folds a day for five years. The number comes from a jig that opens and closes the device at a fixed rate at room temperature. Real use adds pocket lint, cold mornings, sunscreen, one-handed twisting and the occasional drop, none of which the cycle count covers. When you see a fold-cycle claim, read it as a fatigue result for the hinge and panel only.

Very few teams are building a folding phone, but almost every hardware product has a hinge, a lid, a latch or a cable that flexes.

The same discipline applies: define the cycle count from real duty, identify the neutral axis so conductors are not stretched, seal the mechanism against the contaminant that actually exists in the environment, and test the assembly rather than the parts.

A hinge that passes on its own and fails in the product is a systems mistake, not a component defect.

Trade shows like Mobile World Congress used to be the place teams saw these mechanisms in person. When events cancel — as MWC did in 2020 — the substitute is teardown analysis and benchmarking of shipped hardware, which is often more useful anyway because it shows the production compromise rather than the concept.

If your product has a moving joint, a flexible circuit or a sealing challenge, our product development consulting team can define the test plan before tooling is cut — and our prototyping shop can build the fixture that runs it.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip phone features a glass screen with a barely visible crease when open. It has a tiny 1.1-inch cover display for notifications. The phone includes two cameras, with the wide-angle camera designed for natural-looking selfies. Samsung states the fold is rated for 200,000 flips, or approximately 5 years of use, and incorporates fibers to keep dust away from the fold mechanism.

The Mobile World Congress is a technology show held in Spain. It typically hosts over 2,000 vendors. Smaller vendors use this conference to showcase new products, distribute press releases, and secure deals with large mobile networks. The 2020 conference was scheduled for February 24-27 but was canceled due to Coronavirus concerns. This cancellation impacts smaller companies seeking deals with major players.

Technology is being used to guard animals against poachers through a system called Postcode Meerkat. This solar-powered, camouflaged system integrates radars, cameras, and sensors. It can distinguish between people and animals and includes an infrared sensor. If a person is detected in the park after dark, park rangers are alerted. This system aims to protect rhinos from poaching.

Since its launch, the Postcode Meerkat system has led to an 80% decrease in poaching in areas where it is present. The technology is portable, allowing it to be moved to active poacher sites. There are plans to install more Meerkats throughout the park as needed. Saving rhinos through this technology also helps the park's tourism industry.

Foldable phone durability is a specific case of a general hardware problem: a joint that moves hundreds of thousands of times over a product's life. The engineering questions are the same whether the hinge is in a phone, a laptop, a medical enclosure or a piece of outdoor gear.

Cycle testing should run to at least twice the specified life, with measurements taken at intervals rather than only at the end. Torque and free-play trends over cycles predict field failures far better than a single pass/fail at the end of the run.

A folding phone looks like an industrial design achievement and is really a durability engineering achievement. The hinge is the least interesting part visually and the part that decides whether the product survives its warranty period.

Every fold applies bending strain to a display stack, drags a flex cable through a dynamic bend radius, opens a gap that admits dust, and cycles a mechanism that must feel identical on day one and after two hundred thousand operations.

The numbers set the difficulty. A user who opens a device thirty times a day accumulates roughly eleven thousand cycles a year, so a two-year warranty implies a design target near one hundred thousand cycles with margin. Achieving that requires a bend radius the display supplier will guarantee, a flex cable routed with a controlled service loop, and a hinge whose torque curve does not drift as the grease migrates.

Most teams we work with are not building foldable displays, but many build lids, arms, latches, folding handles and articulating enclosures — and every one of those inherits the same physics. The discipline that matters is defining the cycle target before the mechanism is designed, then testing to it early on printed or machined prototypes rather than waiting for production tooling.

The cheapest cycle rig is a small motor, a cam and a counter, and it can run unattended overnight. Teams that build one in the first month of mechanism design find their torque and wear problems while the geometry is still cheap to change — the sequencing we recommend during prototyping and formalize in our development process.

How many cycles should I design for? Estimate daily use, multiply by warranty years, then add at least fifty percent margin. For a consumer lid opened a few times a day, ten to twenty thousand cycles is realistic; for a folding display, one hundred thousand and up.

Can I buy a hinge instead of designing one? Often yes, and you should try. Catalogue friction and detent hinges cover a large share of enclosure applications at a fraction of the development cost of a custom mechanism.

What does a custom hinge program cost? Typically $40,000 to $150,000 including tooling and durability testing, which is why the buy-versus-design decision belongs at concept stage rather than after industrial design is locked.

How do I stop dust ingress at a fold? Accept that you cannot fully seal a moving gap, and design brush or lip features that shed particles plus an internal path that routes debris away from the mechanism. Related mechanism work appears throughout our portfolio.