The Huawei P50 Pocket clamshell is a truly impressive device, the external display of which immediately caught my attention as soon as I picked up the smartphone. The fact is that when the smartphone is closed, the user can see two massive circles on the front panel – one is necessary for the camera sensors and LED flash, and the second acts as a secondary external display. This is the screen I think about all the time because it looks like the perfect platform to unleash the potential of Wear OS.
I realize this sounds a little weird, so let me explain my point.
Reason #1: Mini displays are also round
The secondary touch display is a circle, like most Wear OS watches, and it can display concise information that the user can quickly interact with without having to use the foldable smartphone’s main display. Just like a smart watch.
Reason #2: They display the same information
Huawei is already using a round display for features that are very similar to smartwatches. For example, you can read notifications, check the date, time or weather.
Reason #3: Same idea with AoD
There’s even a low-power clock mode that lets you skip the entire display and turn on a few pixels to show the date, time, and battery level. As soon as you turn on the display, you can see a full-fledged clock with neat animation. This is the same as the Smartwatch’s Always-on Display compared to its full active mode.
I think so.
It is not clear why Google is slow
We already have the Wear OS platform ready – its sole purpose is to serve as a convenient secondary “display” for today’s smartphones. So why do companies need to reinvent the wheel in order to provide the user with at least some of these features on additional displays on their smartphones?
Now imagine a situation in which Google would decide to make Wear OS, based on the Android operating system, available on all devices already running Android. Or at least all the Wear OS APIs. Instead of a huge list of restrictions on how a user can interact with or respond to notifications on a secondary display, the smartwatch system would open access to voice commands. And instead of choosing between a couple of widgets and apps, the owner of the gadget would have full notification support, a huge selection of Wear OS apps, and any widgets you can think of. And all this can be implemented without additional efforts from third-party developers.
Isn’t a modern clamshell phone with a secondary display ideal for Wear OS? What’s more, the platform already supports rectangular and round displays, so smartphone makers won’t even be limited by the round form factor. And it’s not just about folding smartphones – theoretically, both Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra with Meizu Pro 7 Plus, and the Motorola Razr series and Galaxy Z Flip can benefit from this.
This is a translation of the Android Authority article.
Source: Trash Box
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