Motorola has been showing off a rollable concept phone over the preceding few month – in fact , I even got tospend some time with the prototypeat MWC 2023 and was impressed with the potentiality on offer .
But while it was fun , I tapered my prospect because concepts are on the dot that – concepts . These are fun and interesting ways for companies to try out with ‘ the next big thing ’ but , generally address , these concepts never make it to the light of day .
Take theOnePlus Concept 1from 2020 , a smartphone with a colour - shifting rearward glass that could hide the rearward camera setup on need , as an lesson . It was a very intriguing idea at the time , but three year on , we ’ve yet to see the tech in any OnePlus ( or Oppo ) smartphone .
With that and other similar instance of concept tech in mind , I think the Motorola rollable earphone was a cool concept but not something I ’d ever actually see in daytime - to - day life-time – but it turns out that Motorola is much more serious about the image and the form cistron than it ab initio rent on .
I have the chance to speak to Ruben Castano , Head of Customer Experience & Design at Motorola , at the launch of theMotorola Razr 40 Ultrain Madrid last week , and he teased swelled things for the form factor .
“ If you cogitate about it , that move of rolling really fundamentally fixes the same consumer pain compass point [ as foldables ] ” Castano explain – and I agree . Much like flip - style foldables , the rollable concept is a pocket-sized smartphone whose display can expand at will to provide a with child - screen experience on need . In some scenarios , like watching a YouTube video full projection screen , the experience is really automatic .
In fact , the development of the rollable concept and the Razr 40 Ultra seems to have gone hand - in - paw , with Castano note that “ many of the all-important building blocks of the rollable are in Razr today . We just , y’know , reconfigured some thing . The formative display is the same plastic display ” .
That helps explain how Motorola was able-bodied to deliver a comparatively polished prototype so early on , with many of the features and functions of the unit of measurement I present function as they should , from the show to the camera and the OS in general .
However , it ’s the revelation that Motorola has multiple workings sample distribution in the hands of consumers right now that shocked me the most . I strike it was very much an internal project , but accord to Castano , that could n’t be further from the truth .
“ We have multiple units of those rollable devices in consumer hands today . We ’re learning from them , they ’re using them as their daily gimmick . In line of latitude , engineers also have a fortune of units … and they ’re go along the development process . ”
Imagine being one of the few regular consumers around the world who gets to try a next - gen foldable form factor ? That must be pretty damn cool . But what ’s the death end ? That ’s yet to be ascertain , apparently , but the meter will come when a decision has to be made .
“ At some decimal point , we ’re endure to put all that datum together [ … ] we ’re going to see what is postulate to make a rollable or see if a rollable make sense in the market ” Castano explained to me .
So , while we ’re likely not go to see Motorola unveil a rollable smartphone sometime this class , it does look very bright for the build cistron in general , and it could very well be something we find ourselves using a few years from now once foldables and flexible displays are a fiddling more omnipresent .
Are you excited about the idea of a rollable smartphone , or will you amaze to the regular insolent - manner or Quran - style foldables ? Alternatively , do you really like about folding smartphones ? rent me know your thoughts onTwitter .
