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Folding phones are the hot new tendency in smartphone design, even if they aren't ever as durable or useful as we might hope. They're still a refreshing change from the countless succession of flat drinking glass slabs nosotros've seen in contempo years. TCL might be planning to take folding phones to a new place if a leak posted on Cnet is to be believed. This alleged TCL prototype features a slide-out flexible display instead of a folding display.

The unnamed phone looks like whatever other flat smartphone when closed. However, the frame telescopes out to slide the total console into view. That roughly doubles your bachelor screen real estate. The report claims this is 1 continuous OLED panel that folds astern and hides behind the "chief" display when the phone is airtight. Information technology sort of boggles the mind to imagine how this would work — a display that tin "ringlet" like that would have to be much more than durable than what we've seen from Samsung, Huawei, or Motorola.

The leaked render also shows a pair of forepart-facing cameras in a Samsung-style pigsty punch. Around back, there'due south a bank of four sensors and a flash off to one side. All the components are lined up to avoid the sliding mechanism, which makes the phone expect a bit like Huawei'due south Mate Ten foldable from the dorsum. Without a hinge, it may be possible to integrate a single larger battery rather than the two smaller cells nowadays in foldables like the Galaxy Fold and Moto Razr.

Information technology bears repeating that this is but a return, and we'd wager it's a very optimistic render. It's hard to see how a device similar this could work reliably with current technology when comparatively elementary folding phones like the Moto Razr and Galaxy Fold have had major durability issues. Even the Galaxy Z Flip with its ultra-thin glass screen has proven less reliable than nosotros'd hoped.

The study says TCL was planning to have a working prototype of this unnamed slider at Mobile World Congress this month. With the evidence now canceled, nosotros don't know when TCL volition reveal this bizarre device. The term "prototype" could also be read in several ways. Information technology's possible this is piddling more than a tech demo like all the flexible OLED panels we saw at trade shows for years before the first truly foldable phones launched.

At present read:

  • Samsung Announces the Milky way Z Flip with a Folding Glass Display and 'Hideaway Hinge'
  • Huawei'due south Mate X Foldable Phone Launches at $2,400
  • TCL'south New Prototype Phone Folds in Thirds