APRIL 2020 PCWorld 19phones, it won’t be an unknown
name for very long.
While we’re somewhat
accustomed to folding screens at this
point, TCL doesn’t think simply
folding in half is enough. To be fair,
the company does have a single-
folding phone in development that
folds completely flat with “zero gap,”
but TCL is staking its reputation on
two moonshots: a tri-fold display that
opens like an accordion and a
rollable display that slides out like sideways
window blinds.
If it can actually be mass-produced at a
reasonable price, the rollable display could
be a game-changer. The idea is that most of
the time, the phone looks like any of today’s
smartphones, but behind its 6.7-inch display
is another inch-plus of display stored around
the backs and rolls out to expand to 7.
inches. The mechanism is powered by “a very
simple pushrod motor that works with gesture
controls,” and even seeing it in action without
a working motor or screen, it was kind of
magical.
It’s very much a now-you-see-it-now-you-
don’t kind of thing and it presents a unique
new direction for foldables that solved the
biggest issue: the hinge crease. Of course, it
raises numerous interface and multitasking
questions that TCL isn’t prepared to
demonstrate just yet, but it contends that
extending display is easier “from a UI/UX
perspective” than folding the display.
“Because you’re not taking the screen and
then holding it this way or holding it this way,
but you’re just extending,” TCL said, “so it’s
keeping a standard aspect ratio, kind of like
when you do a screen share from your
computer.”THREE FOR THE SHOW
If TCL’s rollable phone is “standard,” however,
its tri-fold tablet is anything but. TCL has
combined two different hinges to create a
display that unfolds like a pamphlet, with
three panels becoming one. The demo unit
we saw technically worked, but like the
rollable phone, it was far from a finished
product. TCL’s vision is to once again turn a
normal-sized 6.5-inch phone into a 10-inch
tablet. To accomplish the dual-fold, TCL uses
two different hinge technologies, Dragon
Hinge and Butterfly Hinge, to “ensure smooth
folding inside and out with a minimal gap.”TCL’s folding phone concept lies flatter than the Galaxy Fold.