Motorola to shrink big phones now; See how it rolls its OLED display from bottom

Motorola just previewed a rollable OLED smartphone that expands vertically. Here is all you need to know.

Motorola Rollable concept phone has been shown off to the world, expands vertically. (Lenovo)

Motorola loves to wow us with its high-end phones and concepts. If you had assumed that the Razr foldable phones and the Edge 30 Ultra are the best you can expect from the company, you cannot be more wrong. Earlier this week at the Lenovo Tech World event, Motorola smartly showed off its rollable smartphone. Rollable smartphones aren't new, right? We saw one from LG that expands into a tablet before the company shut its smartphone business. Samsung has shown similar concepts many times.

However, Motorola's implementation is vastly different from anything we have seen so far. The idea is pretty much like the Razr foldable – you take the flexible OLED panel and try to make the device more practical. The Razr foldable debuted as a flip phone and this rollable phone simply shrinks the phone into a small compact device that is easy to carry and use for basic functions. Sadly, this is a concept device at the moment and Motorola says it is still working on it.

Motorola rolls its latest shape-shifting phone

In the demo video, the rollable phone looks like a compact Android smartphone, with no hint of anything hi-tech inside. In the shrunken state, the phone has a 5-inch useable display and once the expand button is pressed, it elongates to become a 6.5-inch display. That means the phone is no bigger than a Nothing Phone (1) in its unfolded state.

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While it may not sound exciting at first, the idea could work with the masses. Modern day slab smartphones are simply difficult to keep in pockets or handbags. Having a compact size makes it easy to carry around, and also easier to use on a daily basis. Hence, for simply responding to a text, or choosing your music playlist can be all done in the compact mode.

The only thing that remains to be seen is its feasibility in the real world. A rollable phone has a motorised moving part that could go wrong upon impact. The phone's bottom part leaves the display exposed to the world and that could make it a delicate phone to flaunt. Once the rough edges are ironed out, Motorola could introduce the next stage of shape-shifting smartphones.