If you’ve had enough foldable technology, you’ll be relieved to learn that rollable phones are about to be the hottest new item. The hardest part of cooking on the R&D stoves is always the waiting: Samsung, Oppo, and LG (RIP) have all teased us with plans, expectations, and demos, but they still need to deliver on their promises. Motorola is doing precisely that at MWC 2023. Alright, maybe not your hands specifically, but undoubtedly some Lenovo employees’ hands.
Early on Saturday, Avi Greengart, a founder analyst with Techsponential, published his impressions of the device along with some images and videos.
Kicking off #mwc2023 with @Moto *working* rollable smartphone concept. Double click power button to raise/lower the display OR… pic.twitter.com/xdZZQDD0fm
— Avi Greengart (@greengart) February 26, 2023
This item resembles the Motorola on display during Lenovo Tech World 22. Yet, these off-angle pictures and movies give us a better visual understanding of how the phone functions.
…the @moto rollable will change display size automatically if it sees you need more real estate for a keyboard, content, etc. pic.twitter.com/VriBT2NrEs
— Avi Greengart (@greengart) February 26, 2023
The display doesn’t truly roll in and out of its housing; rather, a servo motor component anchors the display panel to the back and changes its position depending on how much screen must be shown in front. After a move, any display area on the back side turns dark. Users can double-press the power button for a manual change, although the system can adapt to various contexts automatically.
The display also rolls *down* to reveal a hidden selfie camera and speaker for phone calls. @moto isn’t bringing this phone to market today, but it’s not an engineering proof of concept either. #mwc2023 pic.twitter.com/QFSGERnFSh
— Avi Greengart (@greengart) February 26, 2023
We can get a fair idea of the size of the actual gadget from these later films, and Greengart notes that it is smaller than Motorola’s most current foldable Razr smartphones. The phone’s selfie camera and speaker are concealed below the display and must be fully rolled back to be seen.
A tribute to the 2006 feature phone of the same name, the firm is officially calling the Rizr, according to Michael Fisher of Mr. Mobile on YouTube. Late in the day, additional sites subject to embargos revealed further details. In press conferences, which we’ll cover later, additional items with rollable displays were demonstrated. They included a tablet, a laptop with the ThinkBook name, and possibly some older models.
Although Greengart points out that the ThinkBook and the Rizr are well past engineering samples, they still need to hit the market.
