Apple has long been rumored to be working on a foldable iPhone device, one that would serve as a smartphone in its folded state and a tablet when unfolded. Now there are reports of Apple including a color E Ink display on the outer surface. Kuo made the revelation in a Twitter post claiming Apple is in the process of testing a color E Ink Electronic Paper Display that would make it to a foldable device also in the making. Interestingly, there have also been rumors about Yuantai working with Apple in developing an e-paper sub-screen that might be used in a future mobile device from the Cupertino company.

If this is true, this would be the first time Apple would be actually releasing a device featuring the e-paper display. A foldable device too will be the company’s first offering in the burgeoning new segment where rival Samsung seems to have an edge already. In any case, adding an e-paper display shouldn’t make much of a difference to the battery life but can add to user convenience immensely.

Apple is testing E Ink’s Electronic Paper Display (EPD) for future foldable device’s cover screen & tablet-like applications. The color EPD has the potential to become a mainstream solution for foldable devices’ must-have cover/second screen thanks to its excellent power-saving.

— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) May 17, 2022

Unfortunately, Kuo didn’t have anything else to share at the moment. However, given that E-Paper displays are known for their extreme energy saving credentials, they can always be used to display the latest notifications and other alerts. Those can literally stay there for days on end without consuming any charge and will consume very little charge when the display is updated to show the next notification.

Other ways the display can be put to use is to read newspaper articles or maybe even e-books and other such digital content as well. That said, these are mere speculation at best, and it remains to be seen how things pan out on this front. Meanwhile, we have had the likes of the Yotaphone in the past which too used an E Ink display which however was attached to the rear of an otherwise conventional smartphone.

More recently, we came across an artist’s rendition of a foldable Surface phone which too had a small e-paper display attached on the other surface for displaying notifications, time, and other information.

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