You Thought Your Phone Was Cool. Check Out These Design Concepts
Phones
Speaker 1: Imagine looking down at your wrist to see your phone wrapped around it like a bracelet. This is one of a handful of clever phone concepts we've seen so far in 2024. Turns out between CES and Mobile World of Congress, we've seen a bunch of phone concepts that are, well, just that wild ideas that play with a phone's form factor and use case. [00:00:30] Now, it's not clear whether we'll see any of these ambitious smartphone concepts ever go on sale. Well, except for one, but it's a lot of fun to see what companies like Samsung, Motorola, and others are experimenting with. So let's get into it. And let's start with this Motorola Bendable phone from Mobile World Congress. Now, C Net's, Andy Langston, who demoed the tech, describes it as his dream wrist phone. It's a phone that can work [00:01:00] like a regular flat candy bar style device, but then can bend around your wrist to be worn like a futuristic gauntlet.
Speaker 1: I mean, who needs a phone and a smart watch when your phone could become your watch. Right now, Motorola calls this an adaptive display concept and actually teased it last year. Wind flat. It looks like a regular Android phone, but the back is covered in fabric for your comfort. You can use it as [00:01:30] any other phone swiping around and emailing and Instagramming to your heart's content. And when you're ready to store it though, you simply bend it into the shape of an arch and you can slap it on your wrist. There's a magnetic strap you wear that looks a little bit like a watch strap, and the phone magnetically attaches to this to help keep it in place when it's on your wrist. And when in wrist mode, the software looks a bit like what you'd see on the motor roller Razor plus's cover screen.
Speaker 1: [00:02:00] And when you want it to be a phone again, you simply pull it off from your wrist, fold it flat again, and away you go. But wait, there's more. Its bendable mechanism allows it to become its own kickstand, so you could stand it up on a table and make it more convenient for a video call or watching videos. Now I think this feature is quite compelling and while I don't think we'll ever see a bracelet phone go on sale, I could see this technology [00:02:30] adopted for another use case or another form factor. And full disclosure, I did review a Nubia wrist phone years ago, and well, I came away with more questions than answers, but let's move on. While Samsung had a similar bendy phone concept with slap watch vibes at Mobile World Congress called the Cling Band, it's actually Samsung's flex in and out flip concept from CES that I want to highlight.
Speaker 1: Unlike [00:03:00] the Galaxy Z Flip five, which folds open and close like a clamshell phone, this concept can fold completely backwards. So you can use the phone 6.7 inch screen even when the device is flat. And when the flex in and out flip is bent backwards, one of the sides of the device is shorter than the other. To avoid covering the camera C Nets, Lisa Attic Chico saw the phone at CS and it ran a looped demo video [00:03:30] rather than the actual phone software and like the Motorola bracelet phone, the flex in and out flip is only a concept well for now. So there's no indication that this technology will ever show up in a real product just yet. But remember, the original Galaxy Fold debuted in 2019, and this shows how far phones and display technology have evolved ever since. But let's move on to a phone [00:04:00] that you can actually buy right now.
Speaker 1: Pretty much anywhere in the world except for the us It's called the Honor Magic six Pro, and it packs most of the high-end specs you'd expect from a 2024 flagship Android phone. But that's not why this is on my list. You see, you could control the phone with your eyes. cnet, Katie Collins got to try the AI powered eye tracking feature for herself and had this reaction, [00:04:30] it felt like my eyes had a whole new set of powers. The Magic Six Pros, eye Controls let you open your notifications, answer a phone call and dismiss alarms like maybe you're cooking and you're using your phone to follow a recipe and don't want to touch it with your messy hands. Honor even has a video using an app on the phone to remote control, an actual car with nothing but a person's eyes. That's pretty cool. And as cool as this video is, the amount of use cases [00:05:00] and accessibility that these eye controls open up is incredibly promising.
Speaker 1: We already have VR headsets like Apple's Vision Pro that use eye tracking to help you seemingly interact with apps and controls in the real world. Now, currently eye tracking is limited to the Magic six pros sold in China, but the feature is expected to roll out to all international versions in the future. And to quote Katie, once again, I'm already looking forward with anticipation to the day when using my eyes [00:05:30] to interact with my personal tech is as natural to me as using my hands or voice. That's all I've got for now. And now I want to hear from you. What do you think of these concepts? Would you want to control your phone with your eyes or wear around your wrist? Let me know in the comments. And last, thank you for watching.
