Smartphones: Will transparent devices become more common in the near future?

Technology

Dec 8 | Written by Muhtasim Rahman

Have you ever wished having a transparent phone like Tony Stark just like the Iron-Man 2? Well, it’s not a fiction anymore. Who could have predicted how the world would change in haste when Alexander Graham Bell figured out how to transmit voice and sounds across great distances? As my thinking, a few, maybe! Recently an article from April 18, 1963 edition of the Massfield News-Journal roaming on my social media feeds where showed the prediction on "You'll be able to carry a phone in pocket in future." From that visionary thinking, I’m inspired to share some ideas of mine as well.

Short story on Telephone to Smartphone

In 1876, the telephone was invented. Then, in 1946, car phone came by Motorola, which was almost 80 pounds. After some years, in 1973, Motorola introduced handheld mobile phone which was made by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper which was two kilograms! Ahead of its time, the IBM Simon got the title of the first smartphone which had basic apps and touchscreen. Then the revolution began. First flip phone in 1996 by Motorola, the best-selling phone of all time, Nokia 1100 in 2002, Java featured phones and then January,2007- iPhone was introduced by Apple when Steve jobs was the CEO. Android phones started producing in 2008 with HTC dream and so on.

However, we have first, second, third, and even fourth generation network systems in this era of technical wonder. People started using the 5G network system worldwide. More features are merging as time goes on in response to consumer requests. Even we can use a mobile phone to perform things like browsing the internet, writing a document, taking a photo, and more. It appears that, like in science fiction, translucent touchscreen phones will soon be widely available.

Progress on translucent phones:

In 2009, LG tried to create first transparent phone named LG Crystal. In the same year, Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness was released. Xperia Pureness had a transparent display, whereas Crystal's slide-out touchpad was transparent. As a result, neither of the phones was entirely transparent. But it was only a beginning.

Many businesses tried to produce such a phone but were unsuccessful. A manufacturer company of Taiwan named Polytron made a prototype but yet no news from there. Samsung and LG are currently working to create a completely transparent phone. However, it's obvious that there are significant difficulties for manufacturers, such as how to fit all of the phone's components if the phone must be transparent. In regard to that, perhaps we can see a frame through a transparent screen or just a chin to contain CPUs and other things. But what if the weight distribution failed? Despite challenges, even transparent cables, circuit boards and even batteries are here. On the other hand, IBM created 2nm chipsets in 2022, which can be an improvement for transparent phones.

 

2nm chipsets use less electricity and are more efficient than 3 or more thick chipsets. If the chipset allows the phone to stay charged at least one to two days idle with a small efficient battery, maybe it can be possible to produce these types of phones in near future. Remember, bending displays were unthinkable before Samsung introduced fold phones.

 

Why we need transparent phones? That is the query on everyone's mind. Well, design and fashion are the main points of interest. Recently, every smartphone looks like same. A giant screen, a front camera and back camera setup, some input jacks and so on. But during the era of keypad smartphone, there were blackberry with qwerty keyboard, Nokia with their innovative designs as well. Transparent phones can be a revolutionary design.

Though there's many profs and cons of transparent smartphones. These are important too because if it's not demanding, no one will buy or produce!

The concept of transparent phones is supported by a few factors.

·       Visualizing road while using the phone if anyone’s walking

·       Using phone both sides so that fingers don’t block the view

·       Always aware of physical world/reality.

 

Additionally, some viewpoints disagree that this is a necessary-

·       Transparency of phone can hamper performance.

·       No privacy if there’s no protection involved.

·       Difficulties to use in enlighten area

 

After all of this, it’s just a dream of ambitious humans to make such device whether it’s more efficient or not. Already transparent Tv’s are available. What if we got the news that finally transparent phones are launching after waking up in tomorrow morning? Who knows!