You don’t just come toMobile World Congressfor smartphone announcements andGalaxy Ring teases. Half the fun of trade shows comes from concept devices, gadgets thatcouldinfluence the products of tomorrow, shown off in a phase well before development truly kicks off. We’ve seen this sort of jump before — after all, it wasn’t all that long ago thatfoldables weren’t much morethan Samsung’s display concepts held behind glass cases, unable to be tried and tested by general audiences.
Last year,Motorola stole MWC with the Moto Rizr, a rollable concept that expanded from a 5-inch display into a 6.5-inch screen with a double-tap of a button. I enjoyed my time with the Rizr, and the company’s success with last year’s Razr makes me hopeful it’s the sort of tech that will make it into a new product sooner rather than later. So when Motorola invited me to a demonstration of the adaptive display concept last shown off in October, it immediately shot to the top of my list of priorities.
Flexing on the foldables
Bringing a whole new meaning to “curved displays”
“Adaptive display concept” is a pretty boring term to describe what’s happening here, so let’s try another one:bendable. In the lineage of foldables and rollables, a bendable phone might not immediately strike anyone as a good idea, let alone one that has a chance of coming to market. A small device becoming big? That’s easy enough to understand. A phone wrapping around your wrist? It’s not as easy a sell, and I’m not sure my time with the adaptive display concept left me feeling any different.
When it’s not flexed, Motorola’s bendable device looks like a sportier version of a standard Android smartphone. The plastic front display seems destined for scratches and smudges, while the back is wrapped in ribbed fabric. It’s actually not a bad feeling phone, and left me once again missing the days of Google’s fabric Pixel cases. From there, you’re able to curve the device inward, allowing the panel to flex outward or stand on its own in tent form. Sounds cool, right?
An old idea, wrapped up in new hardware
Perhaps this was better left in a drawer
Here’s the thing: Motorola’s bendable prototype isn’t new, and I’mnot just referring to last year’s teaseat Lenovo Tech World. As Phandroid’s Nick Gray reminded me, Motorola has been sitting on this gadget for nearly a decade. The companyfirst showed off an earlier iterationway back in 2016, and frankly, this raised my expectations. This isn’t some fly-by-night foldable: Motorola’s staff has been thinking about what a bendable phone can do for eight years; surely, they’ve arrived at an entire suite of use cases that will absolutely rock my world. Right?
Well, not really. The sole use case that Motorola seems interested in pushing — aside from its ability to stand up on its own, and like,have you heard of PopSockets? — is its ability to transform into a grotesque take on a smartwatch. Thankfully, you aren’t just smacking it on your body like a slap band; Motorola has a magnetic wristband you pair with its bendable to hold the device in place. And although this seems like an appealing option at first glance — imagine a smartwatch truly as capable as your phone — it took mere seconds for all the potential problems to flood my brain.
This isn’t exactly an attractive method for carrying your smartphone. It won’t blend in with formal wear the way certain wearables can; hell, I’m not sure it’ll blend in with anything. This thing sticks out like Google Glass, an immediately obvious eyesore that nearby strangers won’t be able to take their eyes off. I’d rather see Motorola use this technology to build a smartphone — or better yet, a true fitness band — that takes advantage of its bendable status in a more realistic form factor.
This concept phone wants you to go app-free, but not entirely
It’s not unlike the Rabbit R1
Beyond that, I’m also not particularly sure what additional functionality I get out of wearing a phone on my wrist. Sure, Strava’s now displayed on a bigger screen during my runs, but actual wearables are capable of displaying the same stats just fine. It’s clunkier, it’s heavier, and I, for one, wouldn’t trust magnetic attachments to hold the bendable in place for the entire run. Smartwatches, meanwhile, mitigate all of these problems while keeping every capability I actually need when exercising.
A lesson in keeping your expectations low
Sometimes, it’s a concept for a reason
As I spent more time with this hardware, more questions kept building up in my head. What problem does the bendy phone solve? How does it improve my life?Who is this for?And ultimately, considering its status as a concept device, the answers to these questions don’treallymatter. But considering thegrowth trajectory Apple’s seen in the premium smartphone space— and howunique form factorsremains one of the few big exclusive differentiators Android OEMs have left — I just hoped Motorola would’ve come to the table with a little more than this.
I truly believe we aren’t too far away from the introduction of an entirely new smartphone shape, similar to the original Galaxy Fold just five years ago. But whether it’s rollables, bendables, or something completely unexpected, I’d still hope these companies would bring a little more to the table with these sorts of concepts. And if you’ve spent eight years with this form factor gathering dust in a drawer, I expect a little more beyond an awkward smartphone replacement. Call me a curmudgeon, but the Moto Rizr this is not.
Motorola Rizr rollable concept hands-on: Simultaneously cool and dumb
Our 2023 hands-on with another wacky Moto concept
