Royole, technically the first company to launch a foldable smartphone, is working on its second folding smartphone, dubbed the Royole FlexPai 2.
Even though the launch of Royole FlexPai put the Chinese vendor on the global map at CES 2019, the phone in itself was pretty much dysfunctional. However, this didn’t stop the Chinese company, specifically founded to develop and sell flexible displays, from working on its successor.
At an event held yesterday, focused on the announcement of the company’s third-generation Cicada Wing display, Bill Liu, co-founder & CEO of Royole, gave us a sneak peek of what to expect from its second foldable phone. Liu claimed that the smartphone will deliver “significant improvements in every possible way.”
The handset, according to the announcement, will feature a 7.8-inch 3rd generation Cicada Wing screen, that will have a smaller bend radius and crease. The company claims that it has reduced the crease to a minimum thanks to its new material simulation model that was used throughout the development process.
The screen, when unfolded, will have a 4:3 aspect ratio. Moreover, according to the official, the display withstood 200,000+ bends without sustaining any damage. The 3rd generation Cicada Wing screen sports 100 micro-nano materials to improve the strain recovery and has a 1.3x better color gamut and 500x better contrast than a high-end LCD.
Apart from this, the upcoming folding phone will be powered by top of the line Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset with a 5G modem. The SoC will be topped with LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.0 storage.
Lastly, the folding phone will come with a new waterproof and mechanically robust hinge dubbed ‘Super Seamless & Stepless Hinge.’ It will be thinner and lighter as compared to the hinge used in Royole FlexPai.
A set of quad cameras, along with stereo speakers, typically found in flagship smartphones, was also hinted. However, the Chinese vendor stopped short at providing further information. Since the smartphone is expected to launch in Q2 2020, we will hear more soon. So, stay tuned.
