OPPO’s rollable ‘OPPO X 2021’ phone seems ripe for production
OPPO showed at the end of 2020 that the company was working on a retractable phone. After it was revealed that OPPO would be working on it, the disappointing message came that this foldable phone would not be released on the market. Two ‘hands-on videos’ draw a different story.
OPPO’s rollable phone
OPPO was one of the first manufacturers to indicate that they are working on a rollable phone – LG showed a teaser of what the LG Rollable might be at the end of its LG Wing launch. Both manufacturers seem to be on the way to launch their first foldable phones: it is difficult to say who will launch their foldable phone first. OPPO did say that it had no commercial release planned for its ‘concept phone’, the OPPO X 2021.
With that, OPPO seems to be bouncing the ball for the time being, which is LG’s move. It is striking, however, that several hands-on videos of the OPPO X 2021 have recently appeared, showing the device in working condition. Judging the quality feeling one gets is tricky from such hands-on videos. After taking a first look at the videos, the phone appears to be ready for sale to consumers.
Smooth extension maneuver
Two hands-on videos that appeared on YouTube show the sliding mechanism of OPPO’s X 2021 in action. With two taps on the side of the device, two ‘Roll Motors’ in the phone slide out the screen surprisingly smoothly. This means that the screen size grows from 6.7-inch to 7.4-inch in the rolled-out state. In addition to tapping the side of the phone, you can also swipe the side of the retractable phone to activate the Roll Motor system.
Not only the hardware on the OPPO X 2021 seems ready for production, that also applies to the software that runs on the device at this stage. For example, videos scale effortlessly when the screen is rolled up again. It is difficult to say what the general software experience is. It is possible that gross software errors were omitted from the videos – or that they did not occur during the hands-on sessions.
Additional internal reinforcements
Foldable telephones use flexible OLED panels, and as is known, screens that are folded – and in this case even rolled up – must be well protected. OPPO has added a Warp Track on its OPPO X 2021. This is an internal metal layer that ensures that the screen is not damaged when rolling or with regular use. The metal part of the Warp Track is only 0.1mm thick.
Whether and when OPPO plans to launch its X 2021 is still unknown. For now, OPPO seems to be focusing more on developing the technology than actually releasing it.
The company previously did the same with periscope technology for telephones. The company showed this as innovation during MWC 2019, but did not immediately bring the technology to the market. Would you like OPPO to release the rollable phone? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of the article.
