A foldable smartphone is a smartphone with a folding form factor. It is reminiscent of the clamshell design of many earlier feature phones. Some variants of the concept use multiple touchscreen panels on a hinge, while other designs utilise a flexible display. Concepts of such devices date back as early as Nokia's "Morph" concept in 2008, and a concept presented by Samsung Electronics in 2013, while the first commercially available folding smartphones with OLED displays began to emerge in November 2018.
Samsung foldable smartphones (front side)
Samsung foldable smartphones (back side)
The Kyocera Echo was a precursor to the current generation of foldable smartphones.
An open Samsung Galaxy Fold
A clamshell design is a kind of form factor for electronic devices in the shape of a clamshell. Mobile phones, handheld game consoles, and especially laptops, are often designed like clamshells. Clamshell devices are usually made of two sections connected by a hinge, each section containing either a flat panel display or an alphanumeric keyboard/keypad, which can fold into contact together like a bivalve shell.
The clamshell form factor is based on the hinged design of the clam.
Brionvega TS 502 radio, Museum of science and technology, Milan (1963)
Grillo telephone, Museum of science and technology, Milan (1965)
Brionvega Soundbook portable radio cassette player, Museum of science and technology, Milan (1974)