Prototype

Back at Display Week 2021 in May, Samsung Display offered a very brief look at a swanky multi-fold smartphone prototype it was working on. Just one photo in fact. Now the concept has made it out onto the show floor at iMiD 2021.

Last year, China's ZTE launched the Axon 20 5G, the first smartphone to feature a selfie camera hidden under the display. Oppo has also been working on under-screen cameras for a while, and has revealed its latest prototype.

The Lightyear One solar EV validation prototype has taken to the test track, where it was driven for almost nine hours at 85 km/h and clocked up 710 km on a single charge of the 60-kWh battery – with a little help from its solar panels.

In development for over five years, and originally due for production in 2019 before a complete redesign put the brakes on that timeline, the third prototype of the Microlino electric bubblecar from Micro Mobility Systems AG has now been completed.

Austrian startup Printstones has been developing robotic 3D-printing robots since 2017, and has just pulled back the curtain on its latest prototype, a mobile multi-tasking construction bot called the Baubot.

Last year, Yanmar announced that it was looking at developing a maritime system using hydrogen fuel cells from Toyota's Mirai production line. Now a passenger boat prototype has hit the water off the coast of Kunisaki in the Oita Prefecture in Japan.

Liquid hydrogen could be a revolutionary technology in clean aviation, and AeroDelft from the Netherlands is working hard to get the first liquid hydrogen fuel cell aircraft in the air. The Phoenix will fly 2,000 km on a 10-kg tank of liquid H2.

We first heard of plans for an electric version of the BMW Isetta bubble car back in 2016. Production of the Microlino was pegged for 2019, but underwent a design overhaul instead. Now Prototype Nr. 1 has been completed and taken for a test drive.

We've seen a number of laptops sprouting extra screens over the years, but Expanscape out-displays them all with the Aurora 7, a monster of a mobile workstation that puts seven screens in front of the user.

Music gear icon Gibson has teamed up with online instrument marketplace titan Reverb to sell one-of-a-kind prototypes, demo models, pre-played artist signatures and Gibson mods. The Gibson Demo Shop has kicked off with 40 exclusive guitars.

Every so often we stumble across something truly awesome on platforms like YouTube. In this case it was a beautiful rendition of the George Harrison composition, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, on a custom acoustic with a novel slide guitar attachment.

Until now, the various flavors of Arcimoto's FUV have sat somewhere between a Polaris Slingshot and a Can-Am Spyder, but with all-electric drive and a roof. Now the company has blown off the roof for a fully open-air reverse trike named the Roadster.