Phone with fold-away screen launched

Niclas Mika, Reuters
22 Jan 2008


EINDHOVEN, Netherlands (Reuters) - A Dutch company has squeezed a display the size of two business cards into a gadget no bigger than other mobile phones -- by making a screen that folds up when not in use.

The 5-inch (13-cm) display of Polymer Vision's "Readius" is the world's first that folds out when the user wants to read news, blogs or email and folds back together so that the device can fit into a pocket.

Polymer Vision, spun out of Philips, whetted the appetite of gadget fans more than two years ago when it showed off a prototype. Now the gadget is in production and will go head-to-head with Apple's iPhone and Amazon's ebook reader Kindle when it hits stores mid-2008.

"You get the large display of e-reading, the super battery life of e-reading, and the high-end connectivity ... and the form factor and weight of a mobile phone," said Karl McGoldrick, chief executive of the venture capital-funded firm, in which Philips still has a 25 percent stake

More at: Moneyweb

Images as posted at Moneyweb:

saw this the other day. To bad it's only a black and white screen. Probably great for what they were originally thinking of, but who wants just B/W in today's world? Also couldn't figure out how exactly it was a phone as I didn't see anything resembling a keypad or anything on any pics. Looks kinda bulky too. Maybe they'll be able to refine it and make it more appealing to consumers before releasing it, if they do.

The next line at the source is:

Quote:

McGoldrick said his "dream device", which the company planned to build within 5 years, was a mobile phone with an 8-inch color display that could show video.

...so the color is on the way.

But it also says:

Quote:

The device -- which will also just make phone calls -- connects to the Internet using the third-generation mobile phone networks with high data speeds.

...referring to this device. So I guess something we can't see flips open to reveal a keypad, or maybe they simply appear onscreen? On my phone you can dial numbers without opening the keyboard since the phone pad appears on screen if you want.