OPPO announced, via Twitter, a concept for a new foldable phone. It’s called the OPPO ‘slide-phone’, and it is definitely unique looking. As we know much of the mobile industry is focusing on the future, and the future is foldable devices. Samsung has led the charge towards that future with their Galaxy Fold 2 and Galaxy Z Flip 5G line of devices.
Now OPPO is throwing their hat into the foldable ring with a new design concept. The ‘slide-phone’ was designed in collaboration with leading Japanese design studio, nendo. This partnership even has a hashtag associated with it as seen on OPPO’s Twitter.
The ‘slide-phone’ is a phone for users who use their phones to interact with the environment around them. Unfortunately, most devices we use are large and cumbersome. The ‘slide-phone’ is looking to tackle this problem by adapting to the perfect size for any occasion.
The OPPO ‘Slide-Phone’ is the perfect size for any occasion
The OPPO ‘slide-phone’ features a triple-fold hinge design. These folds allow the user to change the size of the device at will. If a user slides up one-fold it will expose 40mm of the screen. That works out to about 1.5 inches. This 40mm of screen real estate is for simple functions.
For example, if you need to quickly view your notifications this would be perfect. Maybe you’re listening to music and you need to switch songs. By unfolding the first fold you have access to music controls while maintaining a small footprint.
But what if you need to do something that needs more screen. That is where the secondary fold comes into play. Once you open the second fold you have 80mm worth of screen real estate. That is approximately 3.14 inches of screen.
This three-inch screen OPPO says is ideal for taking photos or even adapting to particular games. The video which OPPO also posted shows the ‘slide-phone’ being fully unfolded. In this state, it has a game displayed in the middle with the controls on either side.
The ‘slide-phone’ is small when it is folded. In fact, in the video, OPPO compared it to the size of a credit card. As a result, the ‘slide-phone’ has a small footprint but offers a lot of screen real estate when unfolded.
Oppo also showed off a concept for a rollable smartphone. Along with rollable OPPO X 2021 and the ‘slide-phone’, OPPO is focused on the future of smartphone design. The only real question is will these devices see the light of day. Or will they remain concepts of what could be?