Many of LG's competitors in the smartphone world have all taken a chance on the foldable phone trend, or have plans to, but LG took a different approach at the end of February when it launched the LG V50 ThinQ and a secondary display attachment, rather than a foldable phone like Huawei's Mate X or Samsung's Galaxy Fold.

The company did tell us at a briefing prior to MWC 2019 that a foldable phone wasn't out of the question however, more that it would only be considered when it made business sense. Well now a patent has been filed, spotted by LetsGoDigital, that shows not only one fold but two.

The patent was filed in March with the WIPO and it shows a Z Type foldable phone that appears to have one main screen when unfolded, along with a third screen to the left of the main screen. This third screen appears to be the main screen when the device is folded, while the larger display folds in on itself.

The patent shows the mystery device with curved edges and a dual camera on the rear but no camera or notch on the front of on any of the displays. There's no more information about the Z Type foldable phone, or when it might be released and it's worth taking with a pinch of salt because many patents never see the light of day.

LG typically reveals what it will be announcing at shows like CES and IFA prior to them happening but so far, despite IFA only being a couple of weeks away, we've only had a teaser about what we might be able to expect from the South Korean company this year.

Its press conference preview video showed a dual-screen foldable device, similar to the LG V50 ThinQ it launched in February, but there was also an outer display which made the device stand out from its successor. This outer display was small though, rather than an entire display as shown in the patent so it doesn't look like the same device.

There's also been talk of an LG G8x device set to launch at IFA 2019, but leaks about this device focus on an in-display fingerprint sensor as the key feature rather than a double folding mechanism.