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Journalism of Courage
Lan Bowen, a secondary school student in China, is ruling the Internet after a video of him creating a foldable smartphone with a 3D printer went viral. Bowen, a student of Yiling High School in Yichang in central Hubei province, explained that the idea for creating a vertical foldable smartphone came to him after noticing that while there were various horizontal models and inward-folding vertical ones available in the market, there were no vertical foldable that left the screen exposed on the outside when bent, South China Morning Post reported.
He first shared the video showing the making of the phone on February 16, as per the report. The phone he created is 16mm thick when folded in half, with the frame crafted using a 3D printer he purchased for 2,000 yuan (Rs 24,000, approximately) last year. The core components of the device were sourced from old mobile phones that his family had used, and some materials were bought online.
A major challenge he faced was that the touchscreen functionality did not work when the phone was unfolded.
“I amended my design, tested it a lot and damaged several screens before solving this problem. My smartphone is at a very primitive stage, with plenty of shortcomings. But the good thing is that it is able to implement all the functions of a normal mobile phone,” SCMP quoted Bowen as saying.
Bowen’s video also caught the attention of Vivo, a leading mobile phone manufacturer in China. “This is impressive! Vivo looks forward to seeing more incredible work from you,” the company said, as reported by SCMP.
The report further stated that Bowen has been doing handicrafts since childhood and has created many military models during primary school.
