Tag Archives: royole

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

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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!

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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’s flexible display technology could one day turn your car’s glove box into an interactive dashboard

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Royole Flexible Display Car Dashboard

The company has very rapidly realized it isn’t in the foldable phones business… it’s in the foldable everything business.

Images have surfaced on the internet of a rather interesting concept employing Royole‘s flexible display technology. Created by Zhiyuan Xing, a designer based out of Shenzhen, the Flexible Car Dashboard poses an interesting hot-take – what if instead of doors on a glove compartment, you just had a display that bent open like a curtain? The Flexible Car Dashboard explores that very possibility, creating an interactive display in an area that would otherwise be a utilitarian panel of knobs and compartments.

Royole Flexible Display Car Dashboard

The panel is a long, vertical display that folds open from the top as well as the bottom, revealing storage areas and charging spots underneath. The display sits in place via magnetic closures that allow it to snap shut, and when you want to access the space underneath, unfold it as if you were turning a page or lifting the edge of a carpet. The GIF above should really help demonstrate how incredibly handy and innovative it is.

Royole Flexible Display Car Dashboard

Joined to the car’s dashboard at the center, the display opens both ways. The upper part has a tray-style design, letting you keep your phones in it (potentially even being able to wirelessly charge them or UV sanitize them), while the lower part is almost like a box to dump other items you need but are less likely to use (charging cables, AirTag, earphones, power bank, etc).

Royole Flexible Display Car Dashboard

Royole Flexible Display Car Dashboard

A crucial part of the display’s design is its lip, which lets you easily get a grip and open it outwards. The display comes mounted on a thick layer of some kind of elastomer, giving it some resistance (so you don’t damage it by tugging too hard), while a magnetic closure system allows the flap to satisfyingly snap shut. The display even knows when to switch off when you’re bending it, helping protect it against any accidental damage. It switches back on when shut, displaying the screen where it last left off.

Royole Flexible Display Car Dashboard

Royole Flexible Display Car Dashboard

Royole Flexible Display Car Dashboard

What this concept presents is something rather remarkable, and a fresh design direction from Royole, which hasn’t really seen much success in the doldrums that is the folding phone industry. A flexible dashboard display, however, would be a great way to expand its catalog while proposing something that isn’t really a novelty, but instead is a very interesting feature. The area where the Royole Flexible Car Dashboard would sit is essentially purely functional – currently occupied by a radio (which people hardly use), AC air vents (which could easily be relocated), and perhaps a slot for a car charger. The Flexible Car Dashboard proposes we use that space for something better, something more cutting-edge with upcoming cars. Designed as a dashboard that could easily see itself integrated into smart-cars or semi-autonomous cars, it gives you a large sprawling screen that’s ideal for accessing the car’s smart features like the Map, Music Player, or other in-car controls. Fold it over and you’ve got the benefit of storage too! Storage, might I add, that would escape the sight of most thieves!

Designer: Zhiyuan Xing

Royole Flexible Display Car Dashboard

Royole Flexible Display Car Dashboard

Royole’s next foldable phone is much better at bending

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When we spoke to Royole CEO Bill Liu back at CES 2019, we were told that his company's -- and the world's -- first foldable phone wouldn't be just a one-off. Today, the manufacturer finally unveiled the FlexPai 2, which is equipped with a tougher and...

Royole’s smart speaker has a wrap-around curved display… and I’m honestly wondering why.

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Designed to be like an Amazon Echo Show but in the shape of an Amazon Echo, Royole’s new Mirage smart speaker tries to integrate flexible displays into smart speakers. The Mirage is a cylindrically shaped smart-speaker (with a floating halo) that responds to Amazon’s Alexa, but the most noticeable element about it is the screen that envelops nearly half the device, wrapping around from side to side. Royole’s always been an advocate of flexible electronics, with a folding tablet, phone, and even keyboard in its catalog of products. The Mirage adds itself to that list with the flexible display, which provides a new way of showcasing information that your smart speaker relays to you.

You talk to the Mirage just the way you’d talk to any other speaker… except when you ask it the weather, it shows you the weather in a graphical format on its wrap-around 7.8-inch AMOLED screen. Ask it to play a video and it does that too, except making it mildly inconvenient because of the curved nature of the display. It seems more of a gimmick than a feature really, and apart from the fact that it could possibly have some really cool visualizations display on it as it plays back music, Royole still needs to define a clear purpose for the Mirage other than the fact that it’s possible to make a smart-speaker with a curved screen on it. Unlike the Amazon Echo Show, the Mirage doesn’t do video calls either, so that definitely leaves a LOT to be desired considering the speaker retails for a cool $899. You’d honestly be better off buying a JBL Pulse 4 for almost a third of the price.

Designer: Royole

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

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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

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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...