The Royole FlexPai 2 is the new foldable challenger.
RoyoleSamsung and Huawei have a new foldable phone challenger: Royole’s FlexPai 2, which launched last night.
The Chinese company is selling its Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Huawei Mate XS rival for RMB 9988, which currently converts to $1472. That’s just over $500 cheaper than Samsung’s phone and just over $1000 cheaper than Huawei’s handset (if you convert the launch RMB price to USD. The Mate XS isn’t available in the US, however).
That’s quite a serious discount. But, of course, the quality of the phone is what truly matters. This is an important point because reviews for the original, which was the world’s first foldable phone, were not good. Royole appears to recognise this, with CEO Bill Liu saying that the company has “learned and improved”.
So what exactly do you get for that price? The baseline specifications look good. There is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset powering the phone, which means 5G connectivity. Between 8GB and 12Gb of LPDDR5 RAM, a 4450mAh battery, four camera lenses - including a 16MP ultra-wide, 8MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, a 64MP main camera and a 32MP portrait lens for selfies. It's a lot of lenses, but a higher megapixel count does not guarantee good pictures - image processing is also important. As we’ve seen with Google’s Pixel range.
There is an improved hinge mechanism, which apparently has been tested to withstand over 1.8 million folds. It is also 40% thinner than the original and measures in at 6.3mm thick. That’s slightly thinner than Samsung’s 6.9mm thickness, but not as slim as Huawei’s 5.44mm handset.
The display is where the magic happens. Similar to Huawei’s phone, the FlexPai 2 folds outwards instead of inwards. This means there is no need for a third cover display like Samsung’s phone, but does mean the main screen is constantly exposed. You will almost certainly need a screen protector and a case.
The display is 7.8-inches, with a 1920 x 1440 resolution and 3:4 aspect ratio. That’s a slightly larger screen than the Fold 2 (7.6 inches) but with a much lower resolution (1768 x 2208). Huawei’s handset is both larger (8 inches) and has a higher resolution (2200 x 2480).
A bigger screen with a lower resolution doesn’t bode well, but the real differentiator is the panel used in Royole’s phone. There’s no mention of ultra thin glass (UTG), like the panel in Samsung’s phone that contributes to that high cost, which probably means it is a plastic display. It may be a while before we see wide-use of UTG in foldable phones. Samsung moved early to work with - and in some cases, absorb - UTG manufacturers Schott and Dowoo Insys.
Powering it all is an updated version of the Android-based WaterOS, which has the split-screen multitasking features we’ve come to expect from foldable phones. The presentation showed off an interesting feature that quickly launches the split-screen by double tapping a “smart touch area”, which is located just below the cameras. The real test will be how nicely third party apps play with Royole’s software. For now, though, this looks like a serious improvement on the original FlexPai and at a good price point. Stay tuned for a full review.
The Link LonkSeptember 22, 2020 at 08:26PM
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