Foldable phones are so last generation, and companies are starting to test out rollable devices. TCL tested one a couple of years ago, and companies like LG were said to be developing them behind closed doors, too. Now Motorola is here to play and had one to show off at this year's Mobile World Congress.

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We didn't get to actually use the device, though we got up as close as we could. We received a demonstration of the device alongside other journalists in attendance, and it's a great concept that might be more practical for some people than a foldable smartphone.

First and foremost, this particular smartphone is not going to be coming out in its current state, and it is purely a concept device to show off what a future rollable smartphone may look like. However, Motorola demonstrated some of its features that could well be coming to a future smartphone, and it's intriguing. For starters, you can assign a contracted or expanded mode to individual apps so that they contract or expand the phone when you use them, such as when you're watching a movie or even a YouTube video.

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While this is only a concept, Motorola has put a lot of thought into this device. There are different ways to use a rollable smartphone that you wouldn't necessarily be able to with any other smartphone, inclusive of foldable. There also isn't a folding mechanism that seems to freak some people out when it comes to foldable smartphones, as the hardware itself moves the screen along for you. In this case, the phone increases in size from a 5-inch screen to a 6.5-inch one.

On top of that, the display wraps around the back of the phone, turning into an always-on display that can be viewed from the back. You can use it for photo-taking too, just like a conventional foldable, so that you can take a selfie with the primary camera on the phone. This particular concept device didn't even have a selfie camera, but it would be hard to find a place for one on a device like this.

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Just like the first-generation foldable phones, we don't expect rollable ones to be all that cheap when they first arrive in the market. They're a new technology that relies on moving parts to work effectively, and moving parts can sometimes break. Back when smartphones were playing with pop-up cameras, that was a major concern, though maybe unnecessarily so.

That's not to say durability concerns are misplaced. What happens if you drop the phone and it falls on the bottom of the display, where the rolling part of the smartphone starts? Presumably it would need to be covered to prevent any kind of extreme damage, but that's what concept phones like this are for. They show off a cool technology and may not necessarily account for every protective feature that exists, but they serve as a way to show what the company is working on currently.

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There are a lot of questions that we have about this particular device, such as the specs and expected launch window. However, we don't think that we'll hear a whole lot for a while. Motorola may have just given us a glimpse at the future of smartphones, but it may also just be yet another rollable device that doesn't make it to market.