OPPO unveils concept phone with ‘rollable’ display

CHINESE consumer electronics and mobile communications company OPPO has unveiled its newest concept phone for the second edition of its global conference: one with a proprietary “rollable” display that extends the phone screen seamlessly.

“It’s very elegant, it’s very beautiful. The display is rollable like a scroll — this is a new exploration of ours on form factor, [an] electric rollable screen,” Levin Liu, vice president and head of OPPO Research Institute, said during the Nov. 17 OPPO Inno Day 2020 live-streamed via YouTube and held physically in Shenzhen, China.

“Its unique charm is to give freedom to the users who can, as per their needs, adjust the size of their screens,” he explained before adding that because of this new form factor it’s hard for them to describe the actual size of the screen as it can measure from 6.7 inches up to 7.4 inches.

Called the OPPO X 2021, the phone is a different variation of the now popular foldable smartphone concept by using a screen panel that has a motor-powered sliding mechanism to unroll without creases.

The concept handset includes a roll motor powertrain, a two-in-one plate, and self-developed Warp Track high-strength screen laminate, all of which are proprietary technologies of the company according to a company release.

While an impressive concept phone that presents a new form factor, it seems OPPO has no plans in the near term to build the said phone for the mass market.

“Although there is no plan for its commercialization in the short term, it will serve as a guide for the transformation and evolution of future product form factors. Commercialization requires market research and business justification, and may take some time,” the company told tech website Android Authority on Nov. 23.

Aside from the concept phone, the OPPO Inno Day also saw the launch of the OPPO AR Glass 2021 that has adopted a “brand-new split design” making it compact and ultra-light, according to the company, which posits the device’s weight as “nearly 75% lighter than its predecessor.”

The AR Glass 2021 is also said to be built with a Birdbath optical solution to enhance the immersive experience and includes a stereo fisheye camera, one ToF sensor (for depth mapping), and one RGB camera.

Finally, the company also launched their CybeReal AR Application powered by “real-time, spatial calculation technology enables high-precision localization and scene recognition” which pinpoints the user’s “exact location to the centimeter and one degree.”

“When the user visits any new places, they will find their location through CybeReal as soon as they open the camera,” said the company release. — Zsarlene B. Chua