The 2022 Moto Razr doesn’t look that special or cutting-edge anymore…

Posted on 12/08/2022 by Sarang Sheth

The Razr seems to have lost its ‘edge’.

In what couldn’t have been a more shitty time to announce the new Moto Razr, the company decided to do it in the same 24-hour period that Samsung announced their new Galaxy Z Flip4 phone. The worst part? The Moto Razr 2022 sort of looks exactly the same as the Galaxy ZFlip 4, with the vertical folding design, and what really seems like a ‘blunter design’, going entirely against the phone’s one defining character – its razor-sharp design. To add insult to injury, the phone only seems to be available to its Chinese audience, so as much as I’d like to see one on the shelves and get a better look at it, that doesn’t seem to be on the cards.

Designer: Motorola

Although the company’s strategy to only focus on the Chinese market seems odd, it makes sense given two reasons – A. The initial folding Moto Razr had a rocky start with various technical and hardware difficulties, and B. China has consistently recorded the highest number of foldable sales ever since the Royole Flexpai – so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a business decision.

However, just an analysis on the phone itself: Objectively, the Razr 2022 is a pretty great phone. It looks a lot more streamlined and has a larger outer screen and two primary cameras. It also ditches that weird thick chin that the previous phone had, which I appreciate because it allows the folding display to look fuller, but it seems like that chin’s disappearance now makes the phone look thicker in comparison (even though it’s 0.3mm thinner than its 2020 predecessor). Besides, the top of the Razr always had a sharp edge that sat flush against the chin when closed. Without the chin, the top of the phone loses that sharp edge, making it look ‘blunt’. I’m a little confused about how I feel because not only is the Razr phone no longer razor-sharp looking, but it also means the phone looks almost exactly like the Z Flip 4, which also has a larger outer screen, two primary cameras, and a top-to-bottom folding display with a hole-punch camera. In an ideal world where the Z Flip4 didn’t exist, the Razr would look like a pretty remarkable handset, but all factors considered (along with the unshakeable feeling that the new Razr feels less ‘razor-like’), the 2022 Moto Razr just doesn’t seem ‘cutting edge’.

To just get the specifics out of the way, the new 2022 Razr now comes with a 6.7-inch foldable P-OLED FHD+ panel with a 144Hz refresh rate, along with a 2.7-inch P-OLED cover display that works for viewing notifications, accessing unique widgets, and using ad the viewfinder for the two primary cameras. The dual cameras feature a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 50-megapixel OIS-enabled shooter. There’s a third hole punch camera on the inside, which is equipped with a 32-megapixel sensor.

Don’t get me wrong – the Razr 2022 isn’t a bad phone. It’s just not as exciting anymore in visual and overall appeal, also in part because the rest of the world outside China won’t get their hands on it. The phone packs a 3,500mAh battery with support for a 33W fast charger (although I’m not sure if the charger comes with the box). Other features include dual SIM support (which is a big deal in the Asian market), 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and obviously, a USB-C charging port.

The phone is all set to launch on Monday, the 15th, with a price tag of 5999 Yuan (about $890) for a model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage or 7299 ($1,082) for the higher specced model featuring 12GB RAM and 512GB of memory.

The post The 2022 Moto Razr doesn’t look that special or cutting-edge anymore… first appeared on Yanko Design.

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

Radical Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Tab patent shows a two-part folding screen + magnetic S-Pen docking area

Posted on 31/05/2021 by Sarang Sheth

It’s slowly becoming pretty clear that Samsung wants to be the dominant player in the foldables market. We’ve seen Motorola, Xiaomi, Huawei, Royole, and even the oddball TCL try their hands at folding devices, but none of them have invested the amount of time and effort as Samsung has. Based on a patent filing uncovered by LetsoGoDigital and rendered by Sarang Sheth, here’s a look at the Galaxy Z Fold Tab, a Note-style smartphone with 2 hinges and a nifty ‘crawl-space’ to dock and charge your S-Pen. The Z Fold Tab hopes to form a third device in Samsung’s line-up alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3, which are set to launch this year – in effect consolidating Samsung’s position in a questionable yet rather interesting foldable-devices market.

The Z Fold Tab concept takes on the avatar of a folding device with an outward screen. However, unlike the Huawei Mate X or any of Royole’s Flexpai devices, the Z Fold Tab comes with two hinges on its massive screen, creating a novel folding format that has a rather interesting set of pros as well as cons. In its closed mode, the Z Fold Tab can obviously be used as a regular smartphone (albeit being slightly thicker) with a waterfall display on both left and right edges thanks to the folding screens (this obscures the volume and power buttons, but those could easily be translated to the screen via force-touch like in the Vivo Apex 2019). However, unfold the screens on either side and you have yourself a larger tablet. The obvious cons are that instead of one crease running across the screen, you’re now faced with TWO creases, however, given how we consume content and the amount of time we spend looking at centrally aligned elements, this format oddly works, because the two creases sit on the sides of the screen rather than along the center.

The foldable design comes with a unique detail. The two halves leave a distinct gap when folded completely, solving two purposes – the gap exposes the main camera lenses, enabling you to take photos and videos without worrying about unfolding your phone; and the gap even acts as a safe space to magnetically dock your S-Pen. Unlike previous Note devices that came with hollow slots that allowed you to slide an S-Pen into the phone, the Z Fold Tab lets the S-Pen dock outside, almost like the iPad Pro. The magnetic dock charges the S-Pen while that comfy gap prevents the pen from accidentally sliding out or getting lost.

The Galaxy Z Fold Tab is not unlike the Z Fold 3 concept we featured last year, however, its key difference is that the two-part hinges don’t overlap to form a 3-layered device. Even when folded, the Z Fold Tablet still remains relatively slim by foldable standards.

For now, however, the Z Fold Tab exists only in conceptual form, protected by an international patent filed by Samsung. The Korean consumer-tech giant is slated to host its annual Galaxy Unpacked event in August this year, although according to analysts and experts, we’re probably only going to see the Z Fold 3 and the Z Flip 3 devices this year along with the usual suspects. According to LetsGoDigital, Samsung may have this under wraps until 2022.

Designer/Visualizer: Sarang Sheth for LetsGoDigital

This concept was first published on LetsGoDigital. Click here to view the original piece.

Breathtaking iPhone FOLD concept transforms from a regular smartphone into an iPad Mini

Posted on 22/02/2021 by Sarang Sheth

The internet is filled with rumors that Apple’s been working on a folding iPhone, and patents even show that Apple’s experimented with different layouts… but if there’s one thing that I’ve learned about Apple, they only debut products that fit perfectly into their ecosystem, and they spend years on product development in the pursuit of perfection; even though it can sometimes mean competitors beat them to the punch. With that being said, the iPhone Fold concept by Svyatoslav Alexandrov makes a compelling case for a folding smartphone. Here’s why.

From a strict ecosystem perspective, the iPhone Fold helps Apple develop one product that fits into two categories – the wildly popular smartphone category, and the sort-of dead mini-tablet category. With the iPhone Fold, Apple could easily discontinue the iPad Mini and focus on the higher-end, pro-grade tablet devices. The folding phone would then absorb the features of the iPad Mini, giving you a device that’s quite literally the best of both worlds.

The iPhone Fold concept designed by Svyatoslav Alexandrov (for the YouTube channel ConceptsiPhone) comes in the familiar Galaxy Fold format, with a primary 6.3-inch screen on the outside, and a larger, 8-inch folding screen on the inside. It ditches FaceID for the reliable TouchID, and turns the entire primary display into a fingerprint sensor – so you can unlock your phone simply by swiping up. The lack of FaceID means a significantly smaller notch with just one front-facing camera for selfies. The back, however, comes with the iPhone 12 Pro’s entire camera setup, featuring wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses, along with a flash and a LiDAR scanner. Open the iPhone up and it transforms into a squarish iPad Mini that’s designed to be perfectly portable. While the concept doesn’t say much about whether this device supports the Apple Pencil, I’d like to think it does, and designer Svyatoslav Alexandrov does mention that the concept is MagSafe capable and 5G ready, which already makes it a pretty good iPad replacement, all things considered.

Multiple sources say that Apple already is working on a folding phone and patents show that the company is researching hinge-details and even folding batteries. However, until folding phones really prove to be a smartphone category that’s here to stay, I suspect Apple’s experimentations will never really see the light of day. It’s fun though, to speculate how a folding iPhone can fit well into Apple’s ecosystem by reviving one product line (the iPhone), and retiring another (the iPad Mini)!

Designer: Svyatoslav Alexandrov for ConceptsiPhone