Royole beats Samsung with first foldable smartphone

Royole’s FlexPai foldable
smartphone
Royole

• Startup display maker Royole on Monday showed off its new
  foldable flexible screen gadget, getting out ahead of Samsung.
• When folded in half, the device can function as two different
  smartphones.
• When unfolded, it can act like a tablet.
• Its flexible screen is cool, but feels more like a gimmick
  than a useful feature.

I just got to put my hands on what’s supposed to be the future of
smartphones.

My first impression: The future still needs some work.

The ostensible gadget of tomorrow is a foldable phone with a
flexible screen. Samsung is widely expected to unveil its idea
for just such a device at a conference on Wednesday. But it was
beaten to the punch Monday night by Royole,
a startup display and device maker.

Bill
Liu, CEO of Royole, with a selection of devices that use his
company’s flexible displays.

Troy
Wolverton

At a small press event, company CEO Bill Liu
showed off the FlexPai, which he dubbed the
world’s first commercially available flexible screen foldable
phone. The device, when folded, looks something like a small
notebook with a wraparound screen. When opened, it looks like a
small tablet.

“We’ve been working on this a long time,” Liu told Business
Insider.

Royole designed the FlexPai to address two significant
shortcomings of traditional smartphones — their screens are
fragile, and they’re not really big enough for many tasks, such
as watching films or editing documents.

Unlike nearly all smartphones, the FlexPai screen isn’t encased
in glass. Its display is an OLED screen that’s printed on a thin
plastic material. The screen is scratch resistant and, because it
doesn’t use any glass, it’s shatter-proof. It can be bent 200,000
times without breaking, Liu said.

“It’s a significant breakthrough,” he said. He continued: “Say
goodbye to broken screens.”

The FlexPai can act as a phone or a tablet

The FlexPai has a hinge in its middle that allows you to fold it
to the point where its two ends touch or unfold it to a
180-degree angle. The hinge is stiff enough that it will maintain
any angle in between those two points. So, one thing you can do
with it is to fold it part-way to form an “A” shape and have it
stand up on its two ends.

The device runs a custom version of Android that Royole calls
Water OS that it designed specifically for the FlexPai’s flexible
screen. One thing it allows you to do is to show a different
video on each side of the device’s screen when its folded, so you
and a friend could potentially watch two different things at the
same time.

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The FlexPai supports dual SIM cards. When it’s folded in half,
you can use the screens on the front and back as, essentially,
two different phones, each associated with a different SIM.

The FlexPai’s hinge will
maintain any angle between 0 and 180 degrees.
Royole

But the flexible screen is perhaps most useful when you actually
unfold it and you can see the full 7.8″ display in its entirety.
In that configuration, it’s almost the exact size as the iPad
mini. It’s only slightly heavier and thicker.

So, basically, the FlexPai is a miniature tablet that actually
fits in your pocket. It will allow users to save money and
weight, because they won’t need as many devices, Liu said.

You’ll need “less and less devices to get the same user
experience,” he said.

Royole is already mass producing the device and taking preorders
for it. It plans to start shipping it at the end of December.

The gadget is pricey and clunky

But you may want to wait before you buy one.

For one thing, the device is expensive. It starts at $1,318 for a
version with 128 gigabytes of storage. If you want the
256-gigabyte version, it will set you back $1,469. That’s more
than the priciest iPhone XS Max — and that model comes with 512
gigabytes of storage.

For another, Royole doesn’t yet have any U.S. carrier partners
and isn’t really selling the FlexPai to consumers here. Right
now, it’s targeting consumers in China instead.

Unfolded, the FlexPai is
about the same size and shape as Apple’s iPad
mini.
Royole

But the gadget has more fundamental problems. It feels like a
first-generation device. Although it’s small and thin for a
tablet, it feels big and clunky when folded in half. That’s
because it doesn’t fold down flat. Instead it has a relatively
thick bulge at its hinge. That could be annoying if you’re trying
to carry it around in your pocket.

Right before Apple introduced that iPad, I met with a small
Silicon Valley company that showed off one of the first modern
touchscreen tablets. I had been skeptical about tablets before
then, but after seeing device — even in its rough shape — it was
immediately clear why someone would want a gadget like it.

I was hoping to have the same experience with the FlexPai. I’ve
been excited about the coming era of flexible screen devices
since the first time I saw a demo of such a display around a
decade or so ago. The idea of having a large screen device that
you can fit in your pocket or roll up into a pen-like tube is
really appealing in theory.

It feels like a gimmick

But right now, this flexible screen device feels more like a
gimmick than a vision of the future.

I didn’t really get to test the device, so I can’t say how it
performs or what it’s like to use on a daily basis. But I’m
dubious that in practice its flexible screen feature is really
that compelling. Other companies have tried dual-screen phones,
and they’ve never really caught on with consumers. I’m skeptical
that people are going to like the trade off of having a thicker
gadget in their pocket.

Sure, its larger screen can offer a better movie-watching
experience. But the display still isn’t big enough for the device
to replace a laptop or a full-sized tablet. You’re not going to
want to edit documents or do other work on that sized screen.

Solving the problem of fragile screens is an important advance.
But not at a $1,300 price point.

It was cool to see the FlexPai in person. I’m just hoping that
future foldable devices do a better job of living up to the hype.

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