Lenovo shows off a foldable smartphone concept

During Lenovo Tech World, the company showed off some interesting products. But perhaps most interesting of all was the demo of Motorola’s rotating smartphone device. Of course, the company stresses that the technology is still in the early conceptual stages, but it’s good to see some progress on a device like this.

The Rollable concept is the product of Motorola’s internal innovation group called 312 Labs. While the group focuses on a wide range of different technologies, it aims to try to solve customer pain points with innovative experiences. According to Motorola, it sees flexible OLED technology as capable of providing “the optimal balance of content and comfort.” The new concept phone offers three modes called extended, compact and peek.

In its most pocketable mode, the new concept device can be as tall as four inches, and in its elongated form it can grow to 6.5 inches. While something like this would traditionally be mind-blowing, we’ve already seen technology similar to this used on a near-production-ready device that was canceled LG mobile phone. The device was never made available to the public, but was ready for retail and sold out to employees after the company decided to exit the smartphone market.

Just last month, we had to see phone in action, and it was quite interesting. Although the general idea remained the same, both companies approached it differently, with Lenovo choosing to implement a vertically expanding screen. This makes for an extremely pocketable phone that can still have a large screen, thanks to rollable OLED technology. Furthermore, the concept device can be extended and retracted with the push of a physical button. Of course, this type of technology has a lot of potential and could even become more popular than current foldable devices.

Unfortunately, Lenovo has not said when this type of device will be available for purchase. But since it’s a concept, it could be a long way off, and for now we’ll just have to settle for foldable smartphones.