Two new trademark listings from vivo appeared on the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) website, both likely referring to future clamshell foldable smartphones named vivo V Flip and vivo S Flip. As of now, the company has a standard foldable smartphone under the vivo X Fold2 name and a vertical foldable named vivo X Flip. And given that these two are the flagship models, it's quite possible that the future V Flip and S Flip models are some sort of midrangers.
Motorola most recently launched its Razr
40 duo, with the vanilla one being a budget-oriented foldable and there's a
rumor that Samsung considers making cheaper foldables too. So the rumor of two
budget-friendly flip smartphones doesn't seem too far-fetched. Perhaps other
OEMs are eyeing the still-untapped budget foldable segment.
As the foldable market matures and the
foldable screen technology becomes more accessible, we will start seeing an
influx of budget foldable smartphones and it seems like the trend is starting.