TCL Latest Foldable Phone Prototype Has a Rollable Screen

Foldable phones are officially a trend now and while we’ve seen devices that fold in half vertically and horizontally, TCL has shown us something completely new with its rollable phone. At first glance, this handset looks mostly like any traditional 6.75-inch smartphone you would have in your pocket, but you can pull it apart to expand it into a 7.8-inch tablet. It’s a different spin on foldable phones as it keeps the expanded OLED display tucked away inside the phone itself. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=tcl-rollable-phone&captions=true"] We only saw a dummy mockup of the rollable phone during our meeting with TCL, but the company tells us it has a working prototype with a working screen and even a motor that takes care of expanding the phone for you. Out of all the foldable phones we’ve seen so far this one was the most appealing to us because it feels and looks like a regular smartphone when it's not expanded. It’s the closest thing we’ve seen to the Global Link communicator from Earth: Final Conflict and we hope to see a working prototype soon. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=tcl-tri-fold-phone&captions=true"]

Triple Changer

TCL also showed off a second foldable device that features a tri-fold display. It looks like a folding phone straight out of Westworld and its one of the first devices we’ve seen with two separate hinge mechanisms. Basically, you start off with a 6.65-inch phone that unfurls like a paper menu into a 10-inch tablet. Since you have one part of the screen that folds into the device and the second part that wraps around it you can use it in a variety of modes as a regular phone, a two- or three-screen tablet, and even a laptop. The last mode basically has you fold the device in a way that the middle third of the screen is sitting at an angle while the side that lays flat for you to type. We got our hands on a prototype that works and it was amazing to see the screen quickly adapt between us using one, two, or three screens. That said, when fully folded up this prototype is as thick as two or three smartphones stacked together, which is a lot to put in your pocket. We hope TCL refines this prototype into something thinner and slighter as its one of the most versatile foldable devices we’ve seen so far. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Kevin Lee is IGN's Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam

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