I feel sorry for Tony Stark, but his reign over transparent screens is about to end. For a while now, several companies have been working on transparent or semi-opaque prototypes, trying to offer something different in the market. The latest development comes from a relatively unknown brand to us, ZUK, whose operations are focused on the Chinese market. ZUK's representatives didn't provide many details… but the technology is getting closer.
For some, it would represent an immediate purchase. For others, a real privacy problem. The only way to know for sure the fate of transparent screens is to bring one to market on a decent smartphone, and that's what the most important names in the industry are working on. The challenges come from all directions: casing type, component size, battery placement… the list goes on. When the billionaire in armor took out his transparent device, millions of fans let out a collective "oooh!" and their minds automatically traveled to Samsung, Apple, LG, Sony, Motorola, and every relevant company in the mobile universe: "When are they going to launch something like that?".
Today we can say we're getting closer. Last June, Samsung demonstrated that screen size isn't a problem when it presented a transparent 55-inch prototype. However, what brings us here is the work of the company ZUK, a startup backed by Lenovo. The official announcement was divided into two parts. On one hand, we have the ZUK Z1, a high-end smartphone with a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, 3 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of internal storage. On the other, we see a transparent screen, connected to what appears to be an Android-based smartphone. Judging by the images from Gizmochina, the small panel is high resolution, but we don't know anything else about the screen or the platform it's connected to.
As always, the key word here is 'prototype.' The folks at ZUK are much more interested in launching their Z1 right now, and if they do develop this screen with commercial intentions, we shouldn't see anything like it on the market until next year. There are many questions, but I think transparency is a healthy evolutionary leap for screens, just like non-rectangular designs.
Gizmochina
