Mobile World Congress is in full swing and we talked about one of the interesting gadgets to be unveiled there – Tecno’s Dynamic 1 robodog. Let’s look at some other cool stuff that’s been showcased.
Motorola Adaptive Display
I still don’t know if we need bendy or foldable phones but these manufacturers certainly believe so. Motorola already has a well-known series of foldable phones and is now venturing into bendable phones.
The Motorola Adaptive Display is the bendable smartphone of your dreams. Technically, they first showed it off late last year but we can still say this is an unveiling.
The phone looks like a normal phone with a unique back but it can flex backwards to make the C-shape. It’s fitting that Motorola’s parent, Lenovo, is responsible for the Yoga tablets, they seem to love this flexibility thing.
When bent like this, you can also use a provided magnetic band to keep it secure and so allow you to wear the phone as a bracelet or a huge smartwatch like so:
Why though? Why have a bendy phone? Some say when set on a table in its arched position you can have two people sitting opposite each other use the screen at the same time. They could watch a movie together or play a turn-based game like chess together.
I believe this is a textbook case of an innovation in search of its reason for existence. Who’s watching a movie on half a smartphone screen? – but to each their own. If you like what you’re seeing then by all means…
Lenovo’s transparent laptop
Stop asking why you need these things and just marvel at the technology. Lenovo unveiled the world’s first, and if I was a betting man, the last, transparent laptop. It’s a proof of concept that might end its lifecycle there.
We don’t really care about the other specs, do we? It will have the processors and RAM you expect but the gimmick, or world-changing feature is the transparency.
The 17.3-inch Micro-LED screen is transparent and has no borders, which looks really sick if I’m being honest. Micro-LED helps it reach an impressive 1000 nits brightness and should allow for decent colour saturation, something transparent screens of the past have not had.
The keyboard is also transparent to complete the sci-fi look. The keyboard doubles as a drawing board, which means it will be terrible as a keyboard. Typing on a huge flat glass keyboard does not a good experience give.
That said, this laptop has more reason to exist than the bendable phone above. Lenovo foresees some use-cases that make sense:
The transparent screen opens up new avenues of work collaboration and efficiency by enabling the interaction with physical objects and overlaying digital information to create unique user generated content
The Nubia 3D tablet
I forget that 3D is a thing sometimes because it never really caught on and for the most part, for good reason. It’s just not a good experience, even with the most advanced 3D glasses.
So, you can imagine my scepticism at the Nubia Pad 3D II’s headline feature – displaying 3D pictures without you having to wear glasses. Apparently, it delivers slightly different images to each of your eyes to achieve the 3D effect.
This has been tried before, the previous generation Nubia Pad 3D was not impressive in this regard. It didn’t work but those that tested the Nubia Pad II say it really feels like things are popping out of the screen. Impressive stuff as one reviewer exclaimed, “I played around with a 3D car model and it genuinely felt like it was popping out of the screen.”
They say an AI-powered eye-tracking engine allows for these impressive results. The tech is called Neovision 3D Anytime and uses some complex algorithms to convert 2D content into 3D in real-time. You can also create 3D content with the Pad II.
If 3D rocks your boat then look away from the iPad or Galaxy Tab and consider this tablet which rocks a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip. It has a sharp 2.5K display with a 144Hz refresh rate. Most tablets and phones for that matter max out at 60Hz.
This 5G tablet has a 10000mAh battery that can be charged at a rapid 66W when it runs out. Looks like a good package. Unfortunately, we don’t know how much it will cost.
9 comments
Laptops are going neke neke neked, unbelievable 🙌🏽
Flexible phones seem to have some potential for the sports enthusiasts and the tactical bros (police/military). Athletes can choose the phone over a watch (though it works both ways😅) and the tactical folks can replace their tablets and forearm computers with a more compact device (but how durable is it🤔)? I suppose this is a case of “if you build it, they will come”. The users will know themselves.
Transparent laptops are harder to justify. They look sick AF, but wouldn’t the background distract from the content? I guess you can get used to it and it might be cool to share content in reverse, or to have double-sided touch input for simultaneous shared control and a tablet mode when closed. Some AR features could also enhance the experience, but then again, carrying it around and using it would increase the risk of dropping and damaging it.
Glasses-free 3D is always a nice feature to have, if you can turn it off and if the price is right.
Practicality aside, these are some cool innovations from MWC. It’s a good opportunity to showcase creativity and vision among the sea of ordinary devices and announcements.
Stark Expo you nailed it. Let’s marvel at Marvel lol
So, one needs to have two working eyes to enjoy 3D on the tablet! Maybe AI will come to the rescue for those with one working eye.
Interesting idea, but I think it is physically impossible to recreate a full 3d image for one eye. It’s your brain processing 2 separate images that creates the 3d effect. Without plugging into the brain, the best AI can do is use eye tracking to change angle of view, like how it is with real objects for people with monoscopic vision.
They should try squeezable phones that way when you drop it . It won’t crack . It’s just a thought
Squeezable phones were there before, but it was a control gesture and not an actual soft body. Don’t lose hope though. We still have shatter resistant rugged phones with rubber coated bodies or rubber bumpers. They just might look ugly to you if they aren’t to your taste. Nokia also has the XR20 and XR21, some of the most low key and pretty rugged phones on the market, but not for long as they are getting old and HMD may surrender the Nokia license so no replacements are anticipated.
Thanjs for the info
The advent of a bendable phone, transparent laptop, and glasses-free 3D tablet heralds a new era of dish network billing issues innovation in technology. These cutting-edge devices promise to reshape our interactions with digital tools, offering unprecedented flexibility, transparency, and immersive experiences. The future of tech is truly bending towards limitless possibilities.