Want to build your own folding phone? Royole’s DIY flexible display kit lets you experiment with foldable tech

Posted on 19/07/2021 by Sarang Sheth

From the company that created the world’s first folding phone comes an open-source kit to help anyone build their own products with flexible displays!

Royole has shown an incredible ability to find the right niche and pivot at the right time with their technological offerings. The company arguably built the first-ever flexible smartphone – the FlexPai – outpacing even Samsung, and their RoKit now aims at helping democratize the fully flexible display (FFD), so creatives and designers can tinker with it, building their own products too.

This means you could practically build your own folding smartphone (like how Scotty Allen’s been trying make his own folding iPhone). Royole’s even showcased an example of what they would make and it looks rather impressive. A baton-shaped device with a rolled-up on the inside and a massive camera facing outwards. Sort of like unscrolling a parchment, the display rolls outwards. It isn’t a folding phone in strict terms (it’s more of a rolling phone), but the idea Royole is getting at is that with their kit, you can now prototype something absolutely absurd; something that even Apple, Google, Samsung, or Microsoft is too scared to make!

The RoKit comes packaged in a pretty impressive aluminum briefcase (scroll for the images below), containing everything you need to bring your unique tech idea to life. The upper part of the briefcase houses Royole’s 3rd Generation Cicada Wing 7.8-inch fully flexible touch-sensitive display, while the lower half of the briefcase contains a development motherboard running Android 10, an HDMI adapter (in case you want to connect your flexible display to an existing computer like a Raspberry Pi, smartphone, laptop, or any other gadget), and a bunch of power cables for good measure.

The idea behind the RoKit, says Royole Founder and CEO Dr. Bill Liu, is to “invite every industry to imagine and design with flexibility in mind, unfolding new possibilities for creators and accelerating the development of flexible solutions in all walks of life.” Envisioned as the world’s first open platform flexible electronics development kit, the RoKit allows other creators to do exactly what Royole did with the FlexPai in 2018 – create electronic products that the world has never seen before.

For now, the RoKit is available for purchase on the Royole website in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and China. Priced at $959, it definitely isn’t cheap, although one could make the case that it’s just about affordable for being able to test out and prototype a product before you actually develop it with mass-produced flexible displays.

Designer: Royole

Royole just launched a DIY ‘Flexible Display Kit’ to help anyone build and prototype folding tech products!

Posted on 12/07/2021 by Sarang Sheth

From the company that created the world’s first folding phone comes an open-source kit to help anyone build their own products with flexible displays!

The kit comes packaged in a pretty impressive aluminum briefcase, containing everything you need to bring your unique tech idea to life. The upper part of the briefcase houses Royole’s 3rd Generation Cicada Wing 7.8-inch fully flexible touch-sensitive display, while the lower half of the briefcase contains a development motherboard running Android 10, an HDMI adapter (in case you want to connect your flexible display to an existing computer like a Raspberry Pi, smartphone, laptop, or any other gadget), and a bunch of power cables for good measure.

To show how limitless their flexible displays can be, Royole’s even created a few conceptual products that highlight exactly how folding screens can make products sleeker, smaller, and better. The examples include (as shown below) handheld gimbals/cameras with slide-out displays, a slick monolithic computer that transitions magically from keyboard to screen (I wonder where they got that idea from), and even a helmet with a rear display that contours perfectly to the shape of the head, allowing you to communicate efficiently with drivers behind you.

Designer: Royole

Royole’s FlexPai 2 5G foldable phone costs under $1,500

Posted on 22/09/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

Back in March, we got a glimpse of Royole’s second-gen flexible phone, the 5G-enabled FlexPai 2, which takes advantage of the company’s latest OLED panel for its outward-facing flexible screen — a similar form factor to that of Huawei’s Mate Xs. This...

2019 wasn’t the year of foldables we were promised

Posted on 28/12/2019 by Engadget RSS Feed

We weren't far into this year when the trend pieces arrived. "2019 is going to be the year of the bendy phone," one read. Another declared that "2019 is shaping up to be the year of the foldable smartphone," or, at least it did before someone quietly...

Royole’s rollable keyboard design is even more flexible than its tablet!

Posted on 08/05/2019 by Sarang Sheth

Royole seems to be truly championing the flexible, foldable future. After the Flexpai, arguably the world’s first folding tablet, the California based startup is looking to embrace folding tech… especially with the RoType.

The RoType is a neat, rollable keyboard. Unlike those hideous flexible silicone/TPU keyboards that you now find on novelty gadget shops, the RoType is slick, professional, and classy. With a miraculously transparent keyboard that embraces and becomes the surface you place it on, the RoType feels sort of like typing on air.

The keyboard uses a special film which contains a hidden circuit. With a transparency of 92%, and a thickness of a dazzling 0.04mm, the RoType flexes, stretches and curls multiple times without deformation. The flexible hidden circuit allows you to type by simply touching the keys, giving it an incredibly feathery UX… and when not in use, rolls right back into the RoType’s robust metal case.

All of the RoType’s critical hardware lies in its metallic case. The case, other than encasing the flexible keyboard when rolled up, houses all the important electronics, and connects wirelessly to any device to allow you to type with ease. The RoType comes with a complete, full-length keyboard that even packs function keys on the top, and doesn’t compromise on key-size… so you’ve got a perfectly capable and feature-laden keyboard in a form-factor that’s 1/10th the size of a physical keyboard. That’s pretty impressive if you ask me!

The Royole RoType is a winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2019.

Designer: Royole

Comparing the Galaxy Fold, the Huawei Mate X and the Royole FlexPai

Posted on 26/02/2019 by Engadget RSS Feed

Over the past few years, new handsets haven't had a lot to distinguish themselves from the competition. We've seen more powerful cameras and larger screens, but the basic design has been a bit stuck. However, in the past week both Samsung and Huawei...

The world’s first real foldable phone is rough around the edges

Posted on 08/01/2019 by Engadget RSS Feed

Unless you're (for some reason) a fan of personal cinema headsets, you almost certainly haven't heard of Royole. That's OK -- founder and CEO Bill Liu wanted it that way. Unbeknownst to most of the world, Royole has quietly been working to pioneer an...

A California start-up beat Microsoft and Samsung to the foldable tablet/phone

Posted on 02/11/2018 by Sarang Sheth

You’re not looking at the Microsoft Andromeda, or the flexible phone Samsung has been rumoredly working on, or Logitech’s flexible phone. You’re looking at the Flexpai, a flexible phone/tablet from California-based Royole. The most interesting thing about the Flexpai is that it isn’t a proof-of-concept. The tablet/phone is literally available for pre-order.

The Flexpai comes with a foldable body and a display that sits on the outside when folded (rather than Microsoft’s Andromeda, where the screen folds inwards). What this means is that the Flexpai goes from single-screen mode to a dual-screen format when folded, with the spine acting as a notification area. You can run simultaneous apps on both screens, with touch working on literally both sides of the display, courtesy Flexpai’s WaterOS.

The screen comes as a large 4:3 7.8-inch display that folds to two 18:9 screens when divided in half. There’s also a 21:6 edge-screen for important notifications like incoming calls. The screen is designed to fold as much as 20,000 times without any damage (which should cover as much as 3 years of use if you fold and unfold the phone 20 times a day, every day). You’ve also got dual-cameras and fast-charging built in too, so there’s no cutting corners with the Flexpai, except maybe for the massive bezel on its one side.

The Flexpai is currently available only in China and costs roughly around $1,571 for the 128GB variant, which seems a little on the expensive side, but that’s the price you pay to be an early adopter of some very revolutionary tech. My advice? Hold off on it till the flexible display market becomes a little larger and more democratized. If you look at the GIF below of a hands-on, you’ll notice that the screen tends to warp a little bit around the spine, and that the transition from single to dual-screen is a little choppy. It’s still extremely impressive though, especially considering big players like Samsung and Microsoft are still trying to perfect the technology!

Designer: Royole