TCL set to unveil radical folding phone that bends into a smartwatch
View(s):It seems Samsung may have found another challenger in the race to develop a folding phone. Chinese tech giant TCL, which acquired the BlackBerry brand in 2016, is set to unveil a flexible phone that can bend around your wrist to become a pseudo-smartwatch, CNET reported. TCL is said to have at least four other folding devices in the works, including two tablets and two smartphones.
A number of renderings obtained by CNET show concepts of what the folding devices may look like. In one image, TCL presents a tall, thin smartphone that can transform into a smartwatch worn around the user’s wrist. Few other details are known about how the device would operate, other than a screen that appears to wrap around the full length of the wearer’s wrist.
Another device shown in the renders can be folded inwards or outwards, by bending from the middle. When it’s folded open, the phone appears to be the size of a small tablet. A third device shown in the renders is also tall and skinny, but can fold open and closed in the middle like a flip phone. CL is reportedly in the early stages of developing these devices, but it’s unclear if they’ll hit the market as described, or if the designs will change.
The firm has previously stated that it hopes to release a folding device by 2020. TCL isn’t the first to explore a phone that folds around the wearer’s wrist. In 2016, Lenovo showed off a phone that bends into a smartwatch, called the CPlus, at its Tech World conference. The futuristic concept device featured a front-facing screen of decent quality that could take photos and record video even when it’s worn as a wearable.
Since then, phone companies including Samsung, ZTE and Xiaomi, among others, have either debuted or teased their own folding smartphones. Samsung is widely expected to officially launch its folding phone, which opens and closes like a book to transform from a smartphone into a tablet, at its Unpacked event on Wednesday.
However, Royole beat it to the punch when it took the wraps off its consumer-ready flexible phone, the FlexPai, at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The $1300 FlexPai smartphone, which doubles as a tablet when it’s unfurled – makes it, in that form, ‘the biggest smartphone in the world right now,’ Royole claims.
©Daily Mail