Roll It & Fold It: A look into new age mobile phones and how companies are working on launching such phones.
Foldable and rollable phones sound like they are straight out of a spy film, and we wouldn’t be surprised if any of the James Bond films had a gadget similar to that. When the concept was talked about, many wondered why do we need one? But now, more companies are making more foldable phones or talking about building them, making many wonder what is all the hype around these phones.
What’s New?
Wait, what is a rollable phone and what is a foldable one? If you have been thinking that they are the same, then we are here to tell you that they are both different but they both look like something Ethan Hawke was using in Mission Impossible.
In its CES 2021 press conference last week, LG teased its Rollable smartphone. Sources told CNET that the phone will be released later this year. Some reports say that the phone could be priced at $2560 in the U.S. If we convert that to Indian rupee, it comes to over ₹1, 87,000 at the time of writing this article. It might sound like a lot but even the foldable phone launched by Samsung, called Galaxy Fold was sold for a massive $2000.
Rollable & Foldable
Rollable Phones: Rollable phones are phones with screens that behave like a paper on a scroll, actuated by the user’s input as intended. It can be an average smartphone at its smallest but at the touch of a button, one can instantly turn it into a decent sized tablet. This is achieved by the roll motor powertrain housing the ultra-thin rollable display which rolls to expand or contract.
The first time we saw this technology was with the OPPO X 2021 prototype demoed at Inno Day 2020. Besides OPPO, LG and a couple of other brands are also exploring their options in rollable technology.
Foldable Phones: Going by the name, you can fold these phones like a book. This phone is perfect for multitaskers and one can do more in the form of a foldable design.
Samsung set this trend in motion with its Galaxy Fold and then, Galaxy Z Fold 2. Later, Motorola launched its own version of the Razr and more firms including Huawei are exploring their options.
Zooming Out
The concept of foldable and rollable phones sound cool but when there were a couple of launches in 2020, many hesitated to buy them because many weren’t ready to shell out $2000 during a pandemic. However, there is a high possibility that people would reach out and buy these new age phones in the coming years.
The other thing to note is that these phones are not something gimmicky but a crucial part of how technology will evolve in the future. Many were surprised when Apple launched a phone with just one button but now, most of our phones don’t have a hard button. On the other hand, the button less phone technology has grown bigger and now, we have TVs and several other screens which do not require any button.
If you still think that many might not reach out for foldable phones, the stats show that they just might. According to Statista, the global foldable phone shipments are anticipated to grow to 50.1 million units by 2022. So, yeah, we might see companies deploying more resources into developing foldable phones in the future.
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