At a small press event, company’s CEO Bill Liu showed off for the very first time the Flexpai. In which, he dubbed as the world’s first commercially available flexible screen, foldable smartphone.
Since Apple did release the iPhone, back in 2007, smartphones have had become more powerful, more intense, more stylish, also more feature-packed than before. Though, the basic shape has remained the same. Moreover, the smartphone market is ripe for change. Like so, foldable handsets are gearing up to be the next trend and big thing.
Updated on 9 December 2024
Digging deeper, expectations are high for the Samsung Galaxy X and a foldable smartphone from LG, which are expected to see at CES 2019. However, a company known as Royole has had beaten every company to the punch, with its Royole Flexpai.
DESIGN
A small startup headquartered in Fremont, California has had released the Flexpai. In which, the phone features a bendable 7.8 inches AMOLED screen, which is made out of flexible plastic. Also, with a 1440 pixels resolution. Thus, runs along the back of the Royole’s Flepai are a hinge. In where you can bend the handset in half as if you are closing a book.
Additionally, you can leave the phone in bent and propped up, or close it altogether, as well. In where it will snap together with embedded magnets. Furthermore, when the phone is closed, it functions as any normal phone would. Thus, you can navigate on a screen with either a 16:8 or 16:9 aspect ratios, depending on what side of the screen you are holding by.
SOFTWARE
In line with this matter, the Royole Flexpai runs an operating system called Water. In which, it is layered on top of Google Android 9.0. Like so, whichever way you choose to bend of hold the handset, the screen adjusts to many different orientations and viewing options, as well.
CAMERA
The Flexpai comes out and displays with two cameras. That includes a 16-megapixel wide-angle camera, also a 20-megapixel telephoto lens. Like so, in a similar design to the flip-able ZTE Axon M, both cameras of the phone acts the rear a front-facing snapper when you fold the screen together.
Moreover, the Royole Flexpai also features a fingerprint scanner and dual-SIM capabilities. And also, the phone does not have a headphone jack, but charges via USB-C port. Moreover, the handset includes a 2.8GHz Octa-core Snapdragon processor. Thus, the device comes out with expandable memory storage and a massive 3800mAh battery life. In which, it can charge rapidly using the Royole’s proprietary charging technology, known as the Ro Charge.
Final Thought
Therefore, during my brief time with the Flexpai handset, the screen appeared vibrant and colorful. Also, the hinge and the enclosing mechanism do feel sturdy. For this reason, the handset still needs to work on. Definitely, however, the phone still looks likely as a prototype rather than a refined and polished tool.
Thus, a double-sided phone, the Royole Flexpai is quite boxlike and thick. In such a way, with this kind of design, it makes the phone so hard to phone. Though, the phone is slim when flattened out as a tablet.
