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A Chinese company may be the first to release a foldable phone

Phones with foldable screens have felt like they’re on the cusp of arriving for years, but outside of a couple of concept designs and trailers, we have yet to properly see one in the flesh. However, a video has emerged from a trade show in China of a tablet-sized phone produced by a company called Rouyu Technology that appears to be able to bend into a shape the size of a small paperback book.

Before you get your hopes up that the era of foldable smartphones is finally upon us, you should watch the below video featuring the device. It looks early, to say the very least. For one thing, the phone doesn’t appear to fold flat, so it ends up pretty bulky when packed away. The software also appears to get confused since the phone’s screen is bent, with the display flashing a couple of times before picking an orientation.

Internally, the tweet claims that the phone contains a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150, the rumored successor to this year’s flagship Snapdragon 845, and ITHome (via GizmoChina) claims prices will start at ¥8,999 (around $1,290) for a version of the so-called “FlexiPai” equipped with 6GB of RAM.

The Rouyu Technology’s FlexiPai is due to have some pretty serious competition very soon. Samsung’s foldable smartphone is set to be making an appearance next week at its yearly developer conference, and both LG and Huawei are reportedly developing foldable handsets of their own. It really feels like we’re on the cusp of these devices actually releasing, but then, it’s felt like that for a while.



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