Chinese firm beats Apple and Samsung in race to release ‘world’s first’ FOLDABLE phone

CHINESE display manufacturer Royole has announced the world's first commercially available folding smartphone, the Royole Flexpai.

Being released worldwide in "late December," the flexible phone has three separate screens when folded, and will sell for between £1,000 and £1,400.

Announced at an event in Beijing, the Royole Flexpai has caught the smartphone industry entirely off-guard, not least because experts believed Samsung would be the first company to launch a folding smartphone.

Yet the Flexpai is an interesting machine in its own right, coming with 7.8-inch display that's actually sited on its back rather than its front.

This is supposed to prevent screen 'creases' from developing as a result of the phone being folded regularly.

And once it's folded, the Flexpai will effectively have three separate screens: one on the front, one on the back, and one on its spine.

Among other things, this foldability will mean that, when taking a photo of another person, both the phone's user and the subject of the pic will be able to see the shot.

And because the device folds into three separate screens, owners will be able to accept or refuse telephone calls on the spine display while still watching a film on the front.

Aside from its more novel features, the Flexpai comes with most of the mod-cons you'd expect from a 2018 smartphone.

It has dual cameras at 16 and 20 megapixels (more than the iPhone XS, Google Pixel 3, and Samsung Galaxy Note 9), and it boasts 8GB of RAM (making it capable of processing lots of demanding tasks at once).

However, it will be expensive, with prices starting in China (where it will be first launched) at 8,999 and 12,999 Chinese yuan, or roughly £1,000 and £1,400.

And it will also be very bulky, with its 320g weight being 180% heavier than that of the iPhone XS.

Still, it provides a decisive step into the future of smartphones, and it may attract more than a few admirers when it launches worldwide around Christmas.

What do you think of the Flexpai? Let us know in the comments.

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