Apple is apparently working on a new hinge type for its devices. Per documents published through the European Patent Office, the company is working on a flexible hinge design for its MacBook notebooks.
The hinge, sometimes referred to as a “Living Hinge”, could be created “from a single rigid material” and sounds similar to the hinge Microsoft unveiled with its Surface Book in 2015, which it refers to as a “dynamic fulcrum hinge.” Here, the hinge flexes as the notebook opens, while the display is removable from the hinge and can be replaced in the opposite direction, allowing for the laptop to be used in a tablet-like mode.
Apple has described the hinge as follows:
“An enclosure for a laptop may be created from a rigid material having a flexible portion defined around approximately a midpoint of the material. The flexible portion may allow the rigid material to be folded in half and thus acts as a laptop clamshell.
A top portion may support a display screen and a bottom portion may support a keyboard, track pad, and the like, while an interior defined by sidewalls of the rigid material may house a variety of electronic components in accordance with conventional laptop computing devices.
In this manner, the enclosure (or a portion thereof) may be created from a single rigid material, while still providing flexibility and bending for the enclosure.”‘
This type of hinge could provide additional flexibility as well as allow the entire chassis to be created from a single material.
Granted, this is just a patent and could require a grain of salt. Apple has revised the patent since its first publication in 2013, but it could open the door to some interesting possibilities.
Via 9to5Mac and Patently Apple