Technologies

Why You Won’t Be Buying a Rollable Phone Anytime Soon

Shapeshifting concepts from Motorola and Samsung likely won’t turn into real products for quite some time.

Imagine if your phone or tablet could change the size of its screen depending on what you’re doing? That’s the future Motorola and Samsung envision, as both companies showcased concept devices capable of extending or shrinking their displays with the press of a button.

Motorola flaunted its concept at Mobile World Congress this week, while Samsung exhibited a slew of shapeshifting prototypes at CES in January. Such concepts prove phone makers are thinking about the next evolution of personal devices beyond today’s static touchscreens. They’re even looking beyond foldable phones, which have only been widely available for a little more than three years.

But as eye-catching as these concepts are, it’ll likely be a long time before you’re carrying one around. High prices, engineering and durability challenges and a lack of compelling use cases will likely mean these concepts won’t turn into real products anytime soon. And if they do, there are still good reasons why you should wait before buying one.

Rollable phones are eye-catching

Motorola's rollable phone concept — Motorola’s rollable phone in small (left) and large form (right).

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Conceptual devices with expandable screens have surfaced before, but they’ve garnered attention again this week at Mobile World Congress thanks to Motorola and its parent company Lenovo.

Motorola showcased its prototype palm-sized phone that extends with the double press of a button. And even better, the screen automatically unfurls when using certain apps like YouTube, according to my colleague Andrew Lanxon, who got to see the device at the conference. The phone may also switch between small and large mode depending on what you’re doing within an app. For example, the phone may stay tiny when you’re scrolling through your inbox, but it could automatically expand as you compose an email, Lanxon writes.

When the device is in its compact form, the display wraps around the bottom of the device to provide a secondary screen on the back of the phone. I can’t think of many other reasons to use this extra screen other than as a viewfinder for taking selfies with the rear camera, as Lanxon did during his demo. Regardless, it’s intriguing to see how Motorola is thinking about putting that technology to use.

Take a look at the phone in action.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Even though phones with rollable screens are in their infancy, they could present some notable advantages over today’s foldables, according to Ross Young, CEO and co-founder of Display Supply Chain Consultants. The crease may be smaller since it would be located at the edge of the device rather than in the center, he said via email. Rollable phones will also likely be thinner than current devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which resembles two phones stacked on top of one another when folded.

But those benefits will probably result in additional engineering challenges. The motors and sliding mechanisms likely require more power consumption, says Young.

«Some brands told us there is a lot of work still to be done,» he said.

It’s not the first time Motorola has shown a concept like this; the phone maker also showcased the tech at Lenovo’s Tech World conference last year. But its arrival at MWC underscores Motorola’s ambitions in this area.

Motorola isn’t the only company interested in making phones with screens that can roll, slide and expand. Nearly two months ago, Samsung exhibited its own vision for what futuristic phones and tablets could look like. The star of the show was the Flex Hybrid concept, which looks like a notebook when closed but can switch between 10.5-inch and 12.4-inch screen sizes when opened.

Samsung showcased its display concepts at CES 2023.

David Katzmaier/CNET

LG also made a splash with the rollable phone concept it teased at CES 2021, although the company shut down its mobile phone business shortly thereafter. Chinese tech giant Oppo has developed a rollable phone concept with a 6.7-inch screen that transforms into a 7.4-inch tablet-sized display.

At the same time, foldable phones — which are generally considered to be the precursor for future rollable devices — still only account for a sliver of the overall smartphone market. Foldable phones are estimated to have accounted for just 1.1% of smartphone shipments in 2022 and are expected to make up 2.8% in 2026, according to International Data Corporation. But that hasn’t stopped phone makers from looking ahead.

«They’ve got to keep innovating to differentiate,» said Brad Akyuz, executive director and mobile analyst at NPD Group. «That’s the only way they can just get ahead of the competition.»

But don’t count on buying one anytime soon

The word «concept» is crucial; these devices aren’t products. Instead, they’re proofs of concept meant to illustrate the direction these companies may take when developing future smartphones. That means we don’t know when rollable phones from Motorola, Samsung or other device makers will launch, if ever.

The foldable phone market could serve as a blueprint. Samsung demonstrated flexible display technology as far back as 2013, but it didn’t release its first phone that could fold in half until 2019.

Whether a rollable phone arrives in the near term or not, analysts believe it’ll take several years for the devices to become a regular fixture in the tech world. Akyuz pegs that at around three to four years, while Bill Menezes, a director for market researcher Gartner covering the telecoms industry, estimates three to six years.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 — Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 (left) alongside an iPhone (right)

James Martin/CNET

There are a variety of reasons why, all of which mirror the challenges that the foldable phone industry is going through. Prices need to be affordable, and phones must be durable enough to withstand everyday use without concern.

They should also offer compelling features that significantly improve the way you use your mobile device to make them worthwhile. Even though today’s foldables have different designs that make our phones more compact when closed, the overall experience is the same as that of using a standard phone. Samsung is trying to address this with a feature called Flex Mode, which divides compatible apps across the top and bottom portions of the display when folded halfway. But this feels more like an optimization than a brand new way to use your phone.

«A foldable phone really isn’t that much different than a flat phone concept,» said Menezes. «Once you open it, you’re still scrolling through to get to different applications, or different screens or tabs.»

Even if a company like Motorola or Samsung does release a rollable phone in the near future, you probably shouldn’t buy it. First-generation products can be expensive, damage-prone and not as polished as later iterations.

Take the Galaxy Fold from 2019, for example, which Samsung postponed launching after a small number of reviewers reported issues with the display. That phone was also priced at $1,980, while the much-improved Galaxy Z Fold 4, which just launched in August, starts at $1,800. Samsung’s smaller foldable, the Galaxy Z Flip, has also matured; the first version had a tiny screen that barely felt useful and lacked 5G.

Samsung's 2019 Galaxy Fold — Samsung’s 2019 Galaxy Fold

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Now, more than three years after the Galaxy Fold’s launch, demand for foldable devices is starting to accelerate. Even though IDC’s report suggests foldables only account for a fraction of the smartphone market, shipments are estimated to have grown by 66.6% in 2022 compared to 2021. NPD Group’s Connected Intelligence Mobility Survey also suggests interest is growing. While 51% of survey respondents said they were not likely at all to buy a foldable phone in 2019, only 36% said the same in 2022, according to data from the survey shared with CNET.

«I think this is the future, I don’t think we can deny that,» Akyuz said. «But as we’ve seen with the foldable category, it’s just going to take some time to get there.»

Technologies

I Tried This $40 Smartwatch: It Was Meh, but Not a Complete Waste of Time

The WITHit Giga does the basics for a lot less, but at the expense of accuracy and attention to detail.

I wasn’t expecting much when I first strapped the WITHit Giga Smartwatch onto my wrist, and at least it delivered on that. This $40 smartwatch does the basics: shows notifications, counts your steps, tracks your heart rate (sort of) and lets you take calls from your wrist. But the execution of all these features is where it all starts to fall apart, and I found myself getting exactly what I paid for.

After spending a week testing it, I came away with this: If you just want a basic smartwatch that works with both Android and iPhone, tells the time, tracks your steps and surfaces notifications, this will get the job done, just don’t expect accuracy. But if you can stretch your budget even a little, something like the $75 Amazfit Bip 6 offers more accurate tracking, a more refined design and more reliable performance.

Design and UI: big, bulky, and basic

The WITHit Giga is about as no-frills as smartwatches come. It looks like an Apple Watch Ultra impersonator: metallic frame around a rectangular screen, rounded edges and even Apple Watch-like icons inside. But that’s where the similarities end.

If your wrist is on the smaller side like mine (I have a 6-inch wrist), brace yourself because this is going to look huge. The Giga’s 48.5mm case is overpowering, and there’s no smaller size option. On my wrist, it felt bulky and out of place, and the thick, textured silicone bands definitely didn’t help matters.

The 2.04-inch AMOLED display is decent with a 386×448 resolution, but the screen brightness isn’t adaptive. You’ll need to manually adjust it, which means it’s almost too bright at night and borderline unreadable in direct sunlight unless you increase the brightness manually.

This watch runs its own proprietary system, syncs to the WITHit app and works with both Android and iOS. You’ll get notifications, basic fitness tracking, an always-on display (which in my testing drained the battery fast) and a speaker/mic combo for answering calls.

The UI is straightforward but lacks polish. Swiping right opens your favorites and the side button lets you quickly launch a workout. Animations feel slow and longer text scrolls in awkwardly to fit the screen.

Battery life: Not bad but there’s a catch

Battery life is one of the few things that holds up well here. I got about three days of use with the raise-to-wake option, and roughly a day and a half with the always on display enabled. That’s not bad for the price, and it’s actually better than even some flagship smartwatches.

But the manual comes with a big red flag: «Avoid fast chargers» and don’t overcharge. That’s not something you want to see in 2025, especially because at this point in my smartwatch charger collection I don’t know which one is fast, and which one is not, and the vague warning makes me think it’s going to explode if I make the wrong choice. Charging from an empty battery to full takes about two hours with the included magnetic charger. But once I left it charging overnight and I approached it with terror the next morning thinking I’d broken the «don’t overcharge» rule. Luckily, I came out unscathed.

Health and fitness tracking: lower your expectations

Workout tracking and wellness is where the cracks really show. Yes, the Giga technically tracks heart rate, blood oxygen (SpO2), sleep, stress and menstrual cycles. But the accuracy is questionable at best.

During workouts, heart rate measurements were consistently off when compared to a chest strap and even other wrist-based trackers. The post workout HR average was close enough, but the metrics during the workout were noticeably off. For example, as I was sitting on my Pilates reformer (completely sedentary) starting a workout on the watch, the screen already read «100bpm», while the chest strap and Apple Watch had me at 65 bpm. This made me skeptical of even the resting heart rate readings.

Sleep tracking only works between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., meaning night shift workers or anyone with an irregular schedule (like this late-night writer) is out of luck.

Sleep stats are also confusing; instead of clear sleep stages or hours of sleep, you get odd comparisons like «fewer than 26% of people in your age group go to sleep this late.» Not exactly sure what I should do with this information.

Menstrual tracking is purely manual, based on averages, with no biological marker detection like temperature tracking. You can’t even log a period directly from the watch and have to do it from the app.

Other smartwatch features

Calls: As long as your phone is within range, you can answer and make phone calls from the watch with its speaker and mic, but clarity is an issue.
Texting: You can see texts from messaging apps, but you can’t reply or even send a prewritten response (when paired to an iPhone).
Voice Assistant: Technically available, but is basically just a shortcut to activate your own phone’s assistant. You tap, and Siri or Google Assistant opens on your phone, not the watch. Not helpful.
Quick settings: Save your recently used apps in quick settings, which actually made flipping between features like workouts and music controls more convenient — this is a win.

Should you buy it?

The WITHit Giga does the bare minimum you’d expect from a smartwatch, but at the expense of accuracy and attention to detail. For $40, it’s a functional notification mirror with step tracking, call support and a splash of health features (if you’re looking for a general overview at best).

But if you can stretch your budget, something like the $80 Amazfit Bip 6 offers far better value, accurate health tracking, cleaner UI and better battery life.

Bottom line: If you keep your expectations low, and you’re just dipping your toes in the smartwatch waters for the first time, this might suffice. Otherwise, it’s worth paying more for something that feels less like a toy and more like a tool.

Technologies

Xbox Game Pass Adds Grounded 2 and Others This Month

Game Pass subscribers will also be able to play the new 90s-inspired horror game Abiotic Factor.

The award-winning, quirky survival game Grounded is like the game version of the classic ’80s comedy film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. And Xbox Game Pass subscribers can get early access to that game’s sequel, Grounded 2, on July 29.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a CNET Editors’ Choice award pick, offers hundreds of games you can play on your Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One and PC or mobile device for $20 a month. A subscription gives you access to a large library of games, with new ones, including Doom: The Dark Ages, added monthly, plus other benefits such as online multiplayer and deals on non-Game Pass titles.

Here are the games Microsoft is bringing to Game Pass soon. You can also check out other games the company added to the service recently, like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4.

RoboCop: Rogue City

Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass and Game Pass Standard subscribers can play now.

Serve the public, protect the innocent and uphold the law as the cyborg RoboCop. You’ll investigate crimes in Old Detroit before using your cyborg strength, cybernetic implants and arsenal of weapons to eradicate gangs from the area. This game is a whole new RoboCop story based on the film series, and Peter Weller, the original RoboCop himself, returns to voice the titular character.

My Friendly Neighborhood

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play now.

Something’s going on with everyone’s favorite Saturday morning puppet show, and it’s up to you to figure out what in this survival horror game. You’ll solve puzzles and use tools and improvised weapons to fend off your multicolored foes. So if you have anything against Barney or Big Bird, you can take out your feelings on them with this game.

Back to the Dawn

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play now.

This game is like if the series Prison Break took place in the Zootopia universe. You’ll play as either a fox named Thomas or a black panther named Bob as they try to navigate the prison system and escape with their lives. With multiple escape routes and over 100 quests you can complete, you can replay this game numerous times and have a different experience each time.

Abiotic Factor

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on July 22.

Science meets violence in this 1990s-inspired sci-fi survival game. You and up to five other players can choose your areas of expertise, build your scientist and explore a massive, top-secret underground complex filled with artifacts and supernatural horrors that could tear you limb from limb. And remember, safety, security and secrecy are of the utmost importance… usually.

Wheel World

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on July 23.

If you want to take a nice, relaxing bike ride, this game is for you. Previously known as Ghost Bike, this game puts you behind the handlebars of one of the last ghost bikes around. These bikes can traverse between the lands of the living and the dead. You can explore these lands at your leisure while you race other riders and upgrade your ride with treasures you find along the way.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on July 24.

This souls-like RPG is set during the final days of the Ming Dynasty. You play as an amnesiac pirate warrior named Wuchang on a quest to uncover the truth behind a world full of chaos. You’ll fight monstrous creatures in forgotten temples and overgrown ruins, unlock new weapons and master devastating techniques in order to bring peace to yourself and others.

Grounded 2 (game preview)

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on July 29.

You’ve been shrunk to the size of an ant — again — and you’ll have to survive the dangerous, miniature world. You’ll fight spiders and wasps, craft weapons and homes and even ride on your own insect friends to get around. You’ll unravel new mysteries along the way, but be careful. Something else is out there, and it hasn’t forgotten about you.

Farming Simulator 25

Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass and Game Pass Standard subscribers can play on Aug. 1.

Farming isn’t always as simple as games like Stardew Valley might make it out to be, but it can still be very rewarding. If you want a taste of what goes into building and maintaining your own farm, give Farming Simulator 25 a try. You’ll grow diverse crops, raise different animals and with the weather-changing, ground-deforming atmosphere, you’ll face all kinds of challenges along the way.

Games leaving Game Pass on July 31

While Microsoft is adding those games to Game Pass soon, it’s also removing three other games on July 31. So you still have some time to finish your campaign or complete any side quests before you have to buy these games separately.

Gigantic: Rampage Edition
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank

For more on Xbox, discover other games available on Game Pass now, read our hands-on review of the gaming service and learn which Game Pass plan is right for you. You can also check out what to know about upcoming Xbox game price hikes.