While foldable phones might be all the rage at this year’s MWC – with our man on the ground Ben Johnson seeing his fair share of folding tech – it’s possible there could be another burgeoning trend on the horizon. The Motorola rollable concept phone is proof of this, with the industry looking towards further screen innovation.
From our time looking at the device and talking to the Lenovo representatives – Lenovo owns Motorola, if you didn’t know – it’s clear that this model is very much a concept for the time being, with no answer as to a possible release, price point, or timeline after much cajoling. Still, we’re not exactly heartbroken, as the word we’ve gone with to describe the look of the device is weird, rollable phones are weird.
While the foldable concept harkens back to the days before smartphones – we all remember the original Motorola Razr – the rollable concept doesn’t have that nostalgia to fall back on. Instead, this proof of concept design feels like it’s just trying to do something different, with no discernable improvement offered by a rollable screen over a regular or foldable version. All we can assume is that Lenovo is testing the waters to see if rollable technology is something that people want to see, though honestly, we’re not sure it’s the boon they think it is.
