Lenovo unveiled two new concept products including a bendable wrist phone and foldable tablet at its Tech World event on June 9, Thursday. The devices are still works in progress and are not yet strong enough to be consumer products. However, they are still real smartphones and tablets that can be bent and folded to become wearable devices.
Lenovo explains that there has already been a lot of progress in bendable/foldable displays. However, the key is solving other engineering problems.
For example, the bracelet phone uses a lot of hinges, while the non-bendable electronics are contained in the gaps where there are no hinges. Lenovo claims the device would still be the weight of a regular smartphone, according to Android Police.
The second application of the tech is the 8-inch foldable tablet. Users can fold, hold, and use the tablet like a normal pocket-size smartphone.
The display's cover is a flexible plastic. It looks like a protective cover because the plastic must stretch when users fold up the device.
After the tablet is folded up it looks like a thick smartphone. However, Lenovo engineers would have to fix the issues of the easily-scratched plastic screen and hinge design before the product hits the retail market.
Lenovo shared that Samsung and LG are not building the OLED panels for the flexible/foldable devices, but did not reveal which company is.
A Lenovo presenter at Tech World 2016 stated the technology would be added to real products within five years. Two key factors would be public demand and manufacturing costs of future devices with the cutting-edge technology.
In related news, Lenovo's Motorola division has unveiled a brand new phone line that allows users to snap on hardware modules, according to BBC. They are called Moto Mods.
The phone modules include improvements such as better speakers and higher battery capacity. They attach to the Moto Z and Moto Z Force handsets using connectors on the back of the phone.
In addition, Moto Mods do not affect the smooth design of the Moto Z. Lenovo used the USB cord-free pogo connectors with strong magnets and power/data-connecting tiny dots in its ThinkPad Stack business travel accessories.
Here's a Tech World update: