Foldable phones start badly, but TCL’s new foldable phone concept offers the same benefits as foldable phones with less compromise. In fact, it makes a flip phone like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip look almost pedestrian.
Imagine a phone with a 6.75-inch screen that extends to 7.8 inches (about the size of the iPad mini) at the touch of a button. This is the idea behind the concept of TCL.
TCL roll-up phone concept
Taking advantage of flexible AMOLED display technology, the world’s first concept of extendable roll-up smartphone is 9 mm thick. Compare that to the Galaxy Z Flip, which is 7mm thin when open but 17.2mm thick when closed.
TCL also says that this roll-up phone does not suffer from creases or folds which can compromise the aesthetic appeal of foldable phones.
How it works? There is a motorized sliding panel that hides the flexible display, similar to the way LG’s LG R9 OLED TV works. Unfortunately, TCL did not have a working sample for our demo, only a dummy unit. But at least I could get an idea of how the screen would slide back and forth.
For this conceptual phone, the network of cameras is located at the rear right, which is essentially the backbone of the device. The cameras would therefore be ready to operate in phone and tablet mode.
Because it’s so early in the development process, you could end up expanding and retracting the screen with a gesture rather than a button – if TCL decides to put this phone into production.
TCL Tri-Fold concept phone
I also got to play with TCL’s tri-fold phone, which the company has already shown.
It was a working prototype that uses two different hinges – and DragonHinge and ButterflyHinge – to go from a 6.7-inch phone to a 10-inch tablet with a display resolution of 3K.
It was pretty cool to unfold and fold this device, but it is very thick when the tri-fold design is closed and quite heavy. Still, I could see the use case for experienced users who are serious about multitasking and running multiple apps on the screen at once.
TCL had a demo video that played on the tri-fold concept to show some of the possibilities, including videoconferencing with multiple people at the same time and editing video in one window while you run another application in a separate window .
I am not yet sold on the double hinge concept because. I would like to see something more elegant. But this is just a concept.
TCL conceptual phones: Conclusion
Of the two TCL concept phones, I’m a bigger fan of the rollable concept. It gives you a big screen when you want it without the fold of the foldable phone. However, I really have to wonder how long the motor would last, and TCL says it always determines the right speed to extend and retract the screen.
Overall, TCL is a company much better known for its televisions than its telephones, especially since it relies on other brands it owns, such as Alcatel, Palm and BlackBerry (RIP). But concepts like this could put TCL on the map as it tries to gain a foothold with other phones bearing the name TCL.