In late 2018, out of nowhere, a company named Royole (Rouyu) announced the world’s first foldable smartphone dubbed as FlexPai. This firm has been existing since 2012 specializing in flexible display technology, however, FlexPai was their first-ever smartphone. Now, more than a year later, the company has launched its successor called FlexPai 2.
Last week, Royole scheduled an event for today (September 22) to unveil FlexPai 2. A few days later, almost entire specs of this device leaked. Now, the handset is official and is already up for pre-order in China priced at 9,988 yuan ($1,471), which happens to be ~40% cheaper than Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2’s 16,999 yuan ($2,505) price tag in the country.
Royole FlexPai 2 Specifications
The newly launched Royole FlexPai 2 brings a number of improvements over its predecessor. The most obvious one is its display. Unlike its forerunner, the 3rd Generation Cicada Wing flexible OLED display with Stepless 3S Hinge (180°) on the FlexPai 2 can be folded flat with a zero-gap. The company claims they have decreased the overall thickness of the phone when folded by 40%, compared to their previous model.
Further, the 7.8-inch unfolded display, which is larger than any other foldable smartphone in the market has a resolution of 1920 x 1,440 pixels with 4:3 aspect ratio. On the other hand, when folded, the main and secondary display will measure 5.5-inch (1,440 x 900) and 5.4-inch (1,440 x 810) respectively.
Under the hood, the device comes equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset coupled with 8GB/12GB RAM and 256GB/512GB internal storage. There’s no support for microSD card but the handset comes with dual nano-SIM card slots and also has dual-mode (SA/NSA) 5G connectivity.
It runs waterOS 2.0 based on Android 10 with an uncanny resemblance to Huawei’s EMUI operating system. In case you do not know, the software on the original FlexPai looked similar to MIUI. Anyway, the phone does come with features to use three apps at a time, camera mirror, and others to make use of its foldable display. These features are again similar to those found on Galaxy Fold, Galaxy Z Fold2, Mate X, and Mate Xs.
The major upgrade in FlexPai 2 apart from the display is its quad-camera setup. It features a 64MP primary sensor paired with a 16MP sensor with a 116° ultra-wide-angle lens, an 8MP sensor 3x telephoto lens, and a 32MP sensor dedicated for selfies. All of them sit vertically along with an LED flash facing front.
Other features of this device include WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, GNSS (GPS, A-GPS, BeiDou, Galileo, GLONASS), USB 3.1 Type-C, dual stereo speakers, side-mounted fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, compass, and barometer.
The FlexPai come in three colors namely Sunrise Gold, Midnight Black, and Cosmic Gray backed by a 4,450mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging (Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0).
Royole FlexPai 2 Pricing & Availability
The Royole FlexPai 2 is only limited to China for now and will retail for the following prices.
- 8GB + 256GB – 9,988 yuan ($1,471)
- 12GB + 512GB – 11,588 yuan ($1707)
Royole’s second foldable smartphone is currently up for pre-order on Jingdong (JD) and will go on sale starting 10 AM on September 25.
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