Lenovo held its Tech World 2023 expo yesterday, with Motorola taking a second stab at a flexible smartphone concept that can be wrapped around the wrist like a bracelet, arched on a table top or stood on its own base.
This is not the first time parent company Lenovo has toyed with the idea of a bendy smartphone, Meghan McCarthy helped demo a similar concept at the 2016 Tech World Keynote.
Sadly nothing more came of it, though a phone you can wear like a bracelet is clearly still being worked on, as evidenced by the reveal of an update at this year's expo.
Few hard specs have been shared but the latest concept features a flexible 6.9-inch pOLED display out front at FHD+ resolution. Instead of rigid housing behind that, Motorola has installed a bunch of hinges to allow the device to be bent back from the familiar flat position and adopt different use modes.
It's reported to offer a full Android experience, though when in self-standing mode it sports a compact view on a 4.6-inch display. It can also be manipulated into a tent mode or slapped onto a user's wrist like the Ritmo Mundo Reflex watch, with users promised "a similar experience to the external display on motorola razr 40 ultra to stay connected while on the go."
Will the second time be the charm for the wearable smartphone? Motorola looks to be still exploring possibilities, but you can see Lexi Valasek from the company's Innovation Research team show off the working prototype in the timestamped video here. She also previewed a nifty AI-powered display wallpaper development for the fashion conscious.
Source: Motorola