Preparing for my week at Mobile World Congress while attending a demo of Motorola’s foldable phone concept was arguably the best and worst decision of my life.
On the one hand, the coolness of a smartphone that can wrap around the wrist is incommensurable. On the other hand, the project is so ambitious that we quickly realize that it is completely far-fetched.
Motorola first revealed the concept at Lenovo Tech World last October. But believe me, it was in Barcelona that the company first presented the smartphone to an audience. For what ? Because during the demo I attended, glitches and bugs accumulated. The device even fell to the ground during a test because of… the magnets present in the hardware still in the beta phase.
When you put the smartphone around your wrist, something incredible happens
But I have to say, when you put the smartphone around your wrist, something incredible happens. This thing rocks. And it’s so geeky that I’m still thinking about it a few hours later.
This smartphone concept first appears in the form of a 6.9-inch panel, covered at the back with a plate of foldable woven material. Look closely at the photos, and you’ll see pieces of fabric starting to come loose and become tangled along the edges of the smartphone. In short, we are still very much at the concept stage.
And that’s good because as it’s a new form factor, the debate is open when it comes to its use. Should it be worn on the wrist? Should I fold it so that it becomes its own crutch? In this configuration, bend the smartphone like a rainbow, and you can even start a session of Power 4 with two players.
Kerry Wan/ZDNET
Many bugs at the moment
The strap that helps the phone stay on my wrist reminds me of Milanese-style straps, like those on the Apple Watch. Simply align the magnetic pin with the back of the smartphone, then fold the device until it covers the entire arm except one side.
The fixing part required several attempts by several journalists who participated in the test with me. And since the smartphone has a certain weight, it was more of a job to be done by two people. Which is not very practical, let’s face it.
Kerry Wan/ZDNET
To put it mildly, I was able to walk around the smartphone like any other, going through folders, applications and the clock widget. But there were many bugs with this smartphone, and more often than not, the smartphone did not register my touch presses and inputs.
Source: “ZDNet.com”