Moxi Group a little-known startup based in Chongqing, China is gunning to be the first to sell bendable smartphones this year, seeking to upstage South Korean electronics giants, Samsung Electronics Co.
According to Moxi Group, they will ship 100,000 of the devices later this year. They’re, at the very least, unique. The phones, which will sell for about 765 USD (approximately 2.6million ugx) a piece, are designed to be rolled into a bracelet and worn on the wrist. The touchscreens work when curled up, or can be unfurled into rectangles to use just like any other smartphone.
Bloomberg reports that, the gadgets for now will only feature black and white displays, with a color version to follow later. Still, that gives Moxi enough bragging rights to beat out other smartphone makers in being first to release bendable products.
“Black and white phones are much easier to make,” said Chongsheng Yu, Executive VP, Moxi Group. “The color model power usage is also much higher than that of the black and white unit. We’ll sell in China and if there’s demand overseas, we’ll look into it.”
“The bendable phone is based on e-ink, which is also used in amazon kindle devices, but it’s superior than what’s been seen before because it uses better touchscreen capabilities.” Said Yu.
The wobbly screens are based on graphene technology, where carbon atoms are arranged in a specific pattern to make them more conductive and resilient. Instead of putting all the smartphone’s parts behind the flexible screen, Moxi crammed the battery, processor and the other components into one end of the gadget. That enables the display to almost bend into a full circle, bloomberg reports.
