Motorola entered the foldable segment in 2022 with the launch of the Motorola Razr. The company followed up with the Razr 5G, which brought improved cameras and beefier internals. While the next-gen Razr is already in the works and coming soon, the Lenovo-owned company is now looking to dip its toes into a whole new territory: rollable phones.

According to Evan Blass (via 91Mobiles), Motorola is developing its first rollable phone, internally known as Felix. Motorola’s vision for rollable phones seems to be different than that of OPPO and TCL, both of which have already showcased their first concept phones. Both the OPPO X 2021 and TCL Fold n' Roll make use of a flexible display that expands horizontally to transform a standard-size slab phone into a large tablet.

According to the report, Motorola’s Felix rollable expands vertically to make the device taller (rather than wider). A third of the phone's display is hidden at the bottom and can be fully extended on-demand to increase the real screen estate. As a concept, this is similar to how the Motorola Razr adopts foldable technology, in which the focus is primarily on compactness and making the phone pocket-friendly.

Blass notes that the Motorola Felix is in very early stages of development, which could also explain why there are no renders of the phone accompanying the leak. In fact, when Motorola started developing the custom software experience for the phone, it didn't even have a working hardware prototype; the company used a modified Motorola Edge 30 Pro to test the software. It's unlikely that the Felix will arrive before 2023.

Seeing just how early in the development the Felix is at this point, it's possible it may adopt a completely new form factor during its development cycle. And it's also entirely possible that Motorola may scrap the project altogether, and the phone may never see the light of day.


Via: 91Mobiles