Lenovo, along with its smartphone company Motorola, is set to go. Along with a number of tangible product releases at this year’s MWC trade show in Barcelona, the company revealed two prototype devices with a similar theme. Rollable Motorola phone and Lenovo rollable laptop.
Neither has a name, and neither will be available for purchase. But they are proof of concept for technology that has been on the outskirts of consumer tech for a few years now and appears set to join foldable before too long.
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We’ve seen both of them before, but only briefly. They appeared in a brief promotional video for the Lenovo Tech World gathering late last year, but this is the first time the press has seen either in person.
Rollable Motorola phone Appearance And Design
Let us begin with the phone. What appears to be a stocky smartphone with a 5in display and a squat 15:9 aspect ratio can actually roll up to show a complete 6.5 screen with a more conventional 22:9 aspect ratio.
When fully extended, the extra screen hangs slightly alarmingly off the top of the device. As someone who’s scuffed his fair share of foldable, this is a phone I’d rather not drop! Revealing on the back its unofficial name: the Rizr. A play on the Razr foldable and a nod to the company’s line of T3 slider phones in the noughties.
Meanwhile, when the phone is ‘folded,’ the extra screen extends around the back, providing an additional mini-display. Motorola demonstrated this with an always-on display, a camera viewfinder, and entertaining animations and apps. It is similar to the cover display on last year’s Razr phone.
Rollable Motorola phone Features
What’s most remarkable about the ‘Rizr’ is how well it appears to function. You can physically roll and unfurl the screen with a button press, but it’s also intelligent enough to work things out on its own.
When you watch a movie in landscape mode, it will instantly extend to provide you with a complete widescreen experience. Or, in portrait mode, start an email, and as the keypad appears, so will the remainder of the screen, giving you a little more room to write your ideas.
It’ll also slide down a little when you need to access the selfie camera or the earpiece for phone conversations, which are both concealed behind the top of the screen.
Lenovo rollable laptop Appearance and Design
A similar piece of technology can be found in the company’s rollable notebook prototype. The laptop’s 12.7 display can extend to a complete 15.3 screen when housed in a ThinkBook chassis, though this isn’t a final product just yet.
When completely stretched, the laptop appears ungainly, but the attraction for coders and others who dual-screen with portrait displays is clear.
When not expanded, the flexible OLED screen slips beneath the keyboard. And because it’s so new that the pixels don’t even switch off. Even though that’s one of the adjustments the company would make for any future market model. Similarly, it does not currently have a touchscreen, but that is a clear inclusion for a future product.
To satisfy Lenovo’s requirements, it would also need to be able to withstand 20-30,000 roll cycles. But the Motorola company representative did not specify how durable the current version is.
Lenovo refused to let us touch either of its rollable concepts! That these aren’t products and will never be, at least not in this shape. Neither would business representatives speculate on when retail models might be available. What we can do is wait and see it develop! What do you think of it? Welcome to leave your comment.
