TCL is about pioneering what could as well become a workable foldable (sorry rollable) phone design. While we are yet to fully grapple with the intricacies of the foldable design, the Chinese tech giant has showcased the render of a rollable display-packing phone.

The rollable design affords the phone a different form factor from what obtains on the foldable style that has gone commercial already. The company equally showcased a tri-fold foldable design prototype but did not say when it will become available.

The two phones utilise display panels developed by TCL-CSOT, the company’s display division that equally manufactures its smart TV displays. The tri-fold model features a flexible AMOLED technology which allows a 10-inch tablet to collapse into a 6.65-inch device. The folded display has an aspect ratio of 20.8:9 and an amazing 3K resolution.

TCL introduced two different hinges for the tri-fold model – DragonHinge and ButterflyHinge. While one of the hinges folds inside like the Galaxy Fold, the second one folds outwards like the Huawei Mate X. It is this design that allows the smartphone to have a triple folding form factor.

On the other hand, the rollable AMOLED display entends sideways from underneath the body of the device and retracts inside as desired just by pushing a button. The device when retracted has a 6.75-inch screen but when it is expanded, it assumes a 7.8-inch display. The rollable design ditches the hinge instead, it has a motorized mechanism and doesn’t allow a manual pull-push motion for now.

What makes this interesting is that the change in form factor automatically enables an adaptation of the user interface to the bigger display, providing additional features like split-screen and multitasking enhancements. With this design style, we won’t have to deal with wrinkles or creases on the foldable OLED screen.

TCL says the smartphones are not yet ready to go commercial. Thus, pricing and availability details weren’t shared.

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