Motorola's toying with the idea of a Galaxy Fold rival

Motorola's innovation lab is experimenting with new folding telephone factors outside of the 2019 Razr, in a bid to take on devices similar the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold three.

Jeff Snow, General Managing director of Production Innovation revealed the research in an interview with Trusted Reviews, telling us: "Yeah, the foldable space is definitely picking up pretty good interest. It'south not where we would, you know, say that is on the steep part of the S curve where it'southward most mass adoption, but it's certainly getting the attending globally and with more than consumers.

"And so we call back that that's certainly a space that's here to stay. And it will evolve in dissimilar forms; a compact phone that folds to smartphone size, or a tablet that folds down to something more meaty, like a typical smartphone size."

The foldable smartphone market has been effectually for a few years, but information technology's been pushed into the limelight after the release of the Milky way Z Flip and the Galaxy Z Fold three from Samsung. The handsets where the first foldables to earn Trusted Recommended badges when we reviewed them last year.

Both handsets take foldable screens, with the Fold opening up like a volume to reveal a vii.vi-inch display.

"So we certainly come across the foldable infinite, you know, equally ripe for innovation, only that's not where everyone'due south focus is going to be express, nosotros are also looking at other ways to utilise foldable screens, or non foldable, rather flexible OLED screens. Nosotros're looking at ways that they might be able to develop into other class factors, you know, the screens that don't necessarily fold, they could curlicue or expand in some other mode.

"So we're looking at many different techniques to develop new course factors, non merely for the sake of doing something for the sake of doing it first, simply something that we call back will solve a real need in the market. And yous know, it's non just with this, so the development doesn't end with only the screen.

"It'south also developing the mechanical mechanism that's going to be used over and over repetitiously. Developing the start swivel to create that folding screen took quite a fleck of iteration and development.

"And so, whatever we do, whether that's a screen that rolls or expands in another way, in that location's a lot of focus on, you know, the mechanism that'due south used to kind of support that screen. And so we're looking at a pretty wide range of the form factors, I guess I would say," Snow concluded.

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The foldable market is becoming more saturated every day, and so Motorola definitely isn't the first company that'south trying to capitalise on the hype. CES 2022 bought even more foldables to market, with Asus confirming the launch of the Laurels Magic V, an "all-new foldable flagship" that will offer up more than contest for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold.

In terms of innovation, it'due south always good to have healthy competition and nosotros could encounter come genuinely interesting ideas spark from this new trend. Yet, foldables are still niche and rarely will you lot meet one in the wild, so Motorola will need to brand its next foldable or rollable device particularly impressive and ensure that information technology covers a demand in the marketplace.

But, with bigger brands like Apple all the same shying away from inbound the flexible marketplace, that also opens upward a gap for Motorola; Samsung is the best-known foldable around right now, but that doesn't mean information technology can't be overtaken, peculiarly if Moto irons out some of the more common Fold 3 problems, like the vulnerability of the screen and the battery draining too fast.