Hands on with the Royole FlexPai – the world’s first folding smartphone

Foldable smartphones will be a reality in 2019 and we found one of the very first at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas – the Royole FlexPai which has a large display but that also folds in half like a wallet.

FlexPai is the world’s first commercially available foldable smartphone with Royole’s second generation Cicada Wing fully flexible AMOLED display.

And the good news for customers is that the FlexPai screen is virtually unbreakable and durable and is able to bend freely from 0 to 180 degrees.

In fact, it can be bent more than 200,000 times without problem.

That means the display can’t be cracked or scratched so the days of paying for an expensive screen replacement are over.

The screen, despite being full-colour, has a paper-like appearance just like an e-reader rather than the shine of glass.

But that didn’t take away from the quality of the images displayed onboard.

When you hold the device in the folded position, the screen facing the user is active.

If you turn it over in your hands that side of the device now activates.

And when you fold out the FlexPai, users are presented with a 7.3 inch tablet size screen which is ideal for enjoying your content or multitasking.

Under the hood is Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Series 7nm processors which is powerful enough for AI and is upgradable to support 5G.

There are also two cameras on board for shooting pictures and video.

And with the flexible form factor, users can position the camera at unique angles.

The Dual View mode lets the person taking the photo and the person whose photo is being taken to see what they look like to adjust their pose and get the perfect shot every time.

The FlexPai is running the Android-like Water operating system which can arrange the display in split view mode and expanded mode depending on what the user is doing.

The Royole FlexPai will go on sale this year and will be supported in various countries depending on the carriers.

The product could be released in Australia if it has the support of local telcos.

www.royole.com/flexpai

* Tech Guide travelled to Las Vegas with support from LG, Samsung and Hisense.