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Motorola’s teasing a rollable concept phone

Riya Shukla

Nov 28,2022
2 min read
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At parent company Lenovo’s Tech World 2022 event, Motorola is showing off a rollable mobile phone in a quick video demo. With the press of a button, the screen extends and retracts, with a moving wallpaper to match.

Motorola isn’t providing any more details about it at this point. It’s unclear whether it will ever reach the market, and flexible concepts aren’t exactly batting a thousand right now. "I think the rollable concept has a lot of potential to replace that book-type device in my mind because it's going to be a lot thinner," he said in a previous interview. "And it should be a lot lighter."

Research Analysis

Although Motorola's first foldable Razr received plenty of attention when it launched in 2019, Samsung is the industry leader when it comes to foldable phones. Samsung accounts for 62% of the global foldable phone market, while Huawei landed in second place with 16%, according to Counterpoint Research. That same report also suggests the market for foldable phones is expected to grow by 73% in 2022, indicating that consumers may be growing more receptive to phones with screens that can bend, fold and eventually roll.

Motorola just announced a new concept for a rollable smartphone with a screen that expands and contracts with the press of a button. The company demonstrated the device at Lenovo Tech World, and it's the latest example of how tech companies are experimenting with ways to push the modern smartphone forward.

Lenovo's rollable phone concept has a 5-inch screen that can extend to 6.5 inches when unfolded. That makes it more compact than even the iPhone 13 Mini when in its small mode, and almost the same size as the iPhone 14 Pro Max when fully expanded. The company has no plans to release the device yet since it's just in the concept stage.

The announcement comes after Motorola announced the third-generation Razr in China in August. Prolific smartphone leaker Evan Blass had previously reported that Motorola was in the early stages of developing a rollable smartphone.

Motorola's approach to rollable smartphones differs from some of the other concepts we've seen so far. Companies like Samsung and TCL, for example, have developed concept devices with screens that expand horizontally rather than vertically to switch between smartphone and tablet mode. But with its concept, Motorola aims to provide a smartphone that can switch screen sizes depending on the situation rather than developing a smartphone-tablet hybrid.