California-based startup Royole outs first commercially available foldable smartphone

Beating the likes of Samsung and Huawei to the punch, California-based startup Royole just unveiled the world’s first commercially available foldable smartphone. Called the FlexPai, it’s a smartphone and table rolled (or should we say folded) into one. It offers the “portability of a smartphone plus the screen size of a high-definition tablet.” It has a 7.8-inch full-colour AMOLED display with 4:3 aspect ratio and 1,440 x 920 resolution. It supports multi-tasking and split screens, and it goes as far to support drag and drop that you can do on computers. Its screen will automatically adjust its size to the movie you’re watching or video game you’re playing. When it’s folded, you can use both the front and back screens together or independently, depending on what you’re doing. Its side edge where the hinge is located serves as the typical smartphone notification bar.

If you worry about sturdiness, Royole claims the hinge can withstand 200,000 folds and twists. The FlexPai can be folded at different angles, letting you manipulate it to how you want to use it. Its operating system, Royole’s Water OS, will conform to this. The smartphone/tablet runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 series SoC, which brings AI capabilities to this device. It also has a dual camera setup with a 20-megapixel telephoto lens paired with a 16-megapixel wide-angle one. It also features stereo speakers and a fingerprint sensor. The developer model comes in 128GB (US$1,588, approx. CA$2,080) and 256GB (US$1,759, approx. CA$2,300) models and are available on Royole’s site. A consumer version will be available for the Chinese market and will be coming around late December.

Source: Inquirer.net