Alert – Motorola unveils foldable phone concept that straps around your wrist like a bangle bracelet and changes colors to match your outfit

Imagine matching your phone to any clothes you own, as a new flexible smart watch.

That’s the promise Motorola and its parent company Lenovo made this week with the company’s new Adaptive Display Concept.

Dubbed the world’s first wearable smartphone, the devices features a seemingly conventional 6.9-inch full HD+ phone, with a display that can wrap around your wrist like a jangly bracelet. 

But the upcoming bendy phone, backed with an orange fabric that connects to a magnetized wrist strap, has more versatility beyond smart watch and smartphone.

The device readjusts itself to a 4.6-inch display, when the user bends part of the device, length-wise, turning the phone into its own standing display.

What’s more, the wearable device has an onboard generative AI that can study your current outfit and whip-up a fresh wallpaper pattern that will help match your chunky, new ‘smart watch’ to your current ensemble.

As a spokesman for the company joked, after Motorola showed off the adaptive display at Lenovo Tech World ’23, the new device ‘molds to our consumer needs.’

Motorola’s Innovation Research Lead, Lexi Valasek, took to the stage at the event to show off the new concept’s fashionable AI application. 

One tech reporter noted that the device appeared to be an improvement on the company’s 2016 promise of the a foldable smart watch / smart phone. 

‘This version does seem more advanced than the one we saw seven years ago,’ wrote Nathan Edwards at The Verge. 

‘We only saw that one go into snap-bracelet mode (with a frankly upsetting crunching noise),’ Edwards wrote, ‘while the 2023 model can do a couple more poses, from the happy worm to a tented mode.’

On stage, Valasek implied that this somewhat bulky wearable was only meant to aid in keeping the user ‘hands free’ in a pinch. No indication was given that the device could replace more rugged, fitness-tracking sports watches anytime soon.  

But Motorola emphasized that the concept phone ‘runs a full Android experience, just like any smartphone,’ according to a statement that accompanied the Lenovo Tech World ‘2 presentation. 

The device bent in half, and pitched almost like a little tent, with both sides of the screen facing outwards, perhaps with multiplayer gaming applications.

Some industry watchers also noted that the device appeared to be a significant advancement on the foldable ‘clamshell’ design, which Motorola may have already perfected with the Motorola Edge 40 Pro.

Given that version of this super-fluid, ultra-bendy concept has been something that the company has been chasing for over six years, some critics are skeptical that this new pOLED smartphone display will finally lead to a finished product for Motorola.

The jangly, bangly ‘smart’ accessory was, to judge from the company’s presentation, more of a flashy means of promoting their new AI features — like the internal image- and pattern-maker that helps the concept device compliment the user’s colthes.

‘The modern smartphone experience is going through a transformative shift, with AI at the center,’ Motorola said, ‘serving as both a personal assistant and a tool to enhance everyday tasks, improve performance, and create more meaningful experiences for our users.’

AI that helps turn your phone into a mobile document scanner, and one that ads a privacy veil to your display were just to of the other new promised features that build off recent advances to machine learning AI software.  

‘Motorola is taking its AI endeavors to another level,’ the company said, ‘showcasing innovations that redefine the possibilities of flexible hardware and also introduced exciting new AI features.’