You are tired of smartphones that are too big in your pocket, but you have to admit that the comfort of a big screen is quite significant. Motorola may have found the solution for you. During the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (Spain), the American brand presented its Rollable Phone, a smartphone concept with a roll-up screen.
We knew of smartphones that fold to save space: vertically like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 or Oppo Find N2 Flip, or horizontally like the Galaxy Z Fold 4 or the Honor Magic Vs in particular. This is Motorola’s stretchable screen. The brand is not the first to test the concept of a screen that looks larger, Oppo had already tested it with its Find X 2021, but in width when Motorola plays with height.
A screen from 5 to 6.5 inches
Therefore, with its concept, Motorola offers a compact but rather chunky smartphone with a flexible 5-inch poLED screen. We immediately notice that the slab overflows to the bottom and rolls up the bottom edge. And for good reason, double-clicking the button on the right will drop the screen down and slide up to offer a 6.5-inch diagonal. Then an extremely thin and rigid screen piece protrudes upwards without changing the grip.
We owe this technical prowess to the teams at 312 Labs, Motorola’s Research and Development laboratory in Chicago, the manufacturer’s headquarters now owned by China’s Lenovo. The team worked on an ingenious mechanical system that scrolls the screen manually or automatically, for example, if you want to start a YouTube video. When you rotate the device in landscape mode, the smartphone’s screen automatically unfolds to take the full size and allows you to enjoy the video in a comfortable way. The goal is to be able to enjoy a big screen when the need arises.
This will go through the game or the video, they tell us. For the moment, Rollable jobs have been automated for YouTube, but also for Gmail. When wanting to write an email, the screen extends directly to leave the lower part for the keyboard and the wider surface for the text to come. This is at a height and does not affect the grip when typing, quite the opposite. We also appreciate the large reading surface that can be reduced with a click, the app drawers that overflow to the bottom, ultimately allowing you to see a lot more apps.
Similarly, if you want to activate the camera, simply move your wrist twice to activate the camera. The rolled surface of the screen serves as a control screen for the person in front of you. Shake your wrist again and the camera switches to selfie mode and then appears on top, leaving much more screen space rolled back. This control area on the back of the smartphone will also display notifications, incoming calls, and any other messages.
A PC that expands without taking up more space
The idea of a smartphone capable of transforming and satisfying all needs by adjusting its appearance to the content is a more than interesting concept. Especially since the device remains compact in the pocket, which is becoming rare these days. The smartphone fits in one hand and extends in height, which does not interfere with its use for all hand sizes. Motorola’s partner in arms, Lenovo applied the same concept to a ThinkPad PC also mounted on a mechanical bearing system to meet other needs.
The Rollable PC is a laptop with a rather bright 12.7-inch OLED panel in 4:3 aspect ratio that will unfold to offer a 15.3-inch screen that’s more of a portrait mode (8:9). All with the same footprint as the original product. This can be particularly useful for multitasking. A button on the side allows you to zoom in or out on the screen that slides under the keyboard when it’s down.
Lenovo explains that it has designed its PC concept to meet both entertainment desires and hybrid work needs. So the screen adapts to the situation and not the other way around. A practical case, but one that requires not being in a hurry, because the screen takes much longer to unfold than its smartphone companion.
The roll up screen is a trend in technology right now. Samsung Display recently showed off a tablet concept that similarly extends from 13-inches to 17-inches via a slider mechanism. But we will still have to wait to see one or the other of these concepts. Whether it’s Lenovo, Motorola or Samsung, this is all still in the state of the crazy project, certainly quite advanced. Nothing is fully functional yet. But the thought of such space saving already leaves you dreaming.
Source: BFM TV
