Smartphone gaints, including Huawei, Motorola and Samsung have all hinted the release of new foldable smartphones, but undoubtedly achieving this is Royole, a little-known mobile company with offices in Fremont, California, Hong Kong, and China’s hardware hub, Shenzhen.
Royole recently unveiled what could be the world’s first commercially available foldable tablet-phone. Royole Corporation – a specialist in manufacturing flexible displays – unveiled the FlexPai handset at an event in Beijing.
Still a bit rough around the edges, when opened, the device presents a single display measuring 7.8in (19.8cm) – bigger than many tablets.
But when folded up, it presents three separate smaller screens – on the front, rear and spine of the device.
The folded edge also displays notifications, which Royole has put to use for managing calls, messages, and notifications that no longer need to be on the larger screens.
The six-year-old company said it would hold three “flash sales” to consumers in China on 1 November to offer the first product run.
A developer version of the FlexPai is available globally now, while consumers in China can buy the consumer edition today. Royole says it expects to ship the devices in late December.
The phones will be priced between 8,999 and 12,999 yuan ($1,290 to $1,863; £1,011 to £1,460) depending on the memory and storage specifications selected.
In addition, Royole said it would also offer a slightly different version of the devices to developers across the world the same day.
Specs-wise, it’s running a Snapdragon 8-series SoC, and features a 20-megapixel camera and 16-megapixel camera.
The AMOLED display has 1,920 x 1,440 pixels. It also has fast-charging, a microSD slot, fingerprint reader, and a USB-C port. It’s running on an Android 9.0 based Water OS.
Edited by Neo Sesinye
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