The foldable smartphone market is still in its early stage, but it appears that a lot of tech companies want to jump into the bandwagon as early as now. One of them is TCL. The TV maker recently showed off a couple of its foldable smartphone prototypes that took the revolutionary design to the next level.
TCL Foldable Smartphones
TCL first teased about its foldable smartphone at the CES 2020 on Jan. Today, the company shows off a set of gorgeous-looking smartphones. It includes a double foldable 10-inch tablet, a rollable smartphone the smoothly slides out, and a wallet-size clamshell-like smartphone that closes without any gap.
Before we get too excited about these smartphones, it is worth noting that these are just concepts or prototypes. In other words, these devices have no official names, no specs or features, and, unfortunately, no chance of being available to consumers anytime soon. These are more likely concepts with several working components but are obviously very exciting. If these prototypes are any indications of what TCL plans for the future, it wouldn't be long before we would learn about their names.
Getting Into Details
The TCL foldable device with a butterfly concept is the device the company first showed at the CES. It is a wallet-sized clamshell smartphone that turns into a 7.2-inch AMOLED display. It closes without a gap between the halves. It boasts a 2K resolution, but TCL claims that this is just a prototype and not a production disguised device.
Another prototype is the full-sized tablet that folds twice on its own. TCL combines the Butterfly Hinge and Dragon Hinge mechanisms to create a Z-shaped device. When the device is closed, it transforms into a 6.65-inch smartphone. When it is opened, it becomes a 10-inch tablet with a 3K resolution.
Meanwhile, the rollable TCL smartphone prototype shows a slim 9mm thick device with a 6.75-inch display. When unfurled, the rollable AMOLED transforms the device into a 7.8-inch mini-tablet. But, unlike the foldable tablet prototype that folds on its own, the user has to slide out the panel. It sports an ultra-slim motor that powers the functional version of the device.
While these prototypes might not be available yet, TCL revealed that it has a series of affordable smartphones arriving this year. It includes a 5G smartphone that could be available at a fraction of the standard retail price we see in the market. The company also hinted that foldable smartphones could be the reason why it wants to jump into the bandwagon.
