Motorola doesn’t want to be late to the foldable smartphone party.
Samsung showed off its Galaxy Fold smartphone this month. Huawei unveiled its folding Mate X at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. While Motorola isn’t quite ready to unveil the flip phone that was detailed in a patent that surfaced last year, the company confirmed that it is working on a foldable phone that should be coming soon.
Motorola has “no intention of coming later than everybody else in the market,” Dan Dery, Motorola’s vice president of global product, told Engadget. With Samsung’s release set for April, and Huawei planning on a mid-year launch, that could mean Motorola’s foldable phone makes its debut in the next next couple of months.
The interview also hinted that Motorola’s phone could look different from the competition, since Dery said there aren’t plans to have a screen on the outside of the smartphone.
“We have been testing a plastic OLED device with plastic film on top,” he told Engadget. “The fact that you’re touching [that kind of display] with your nails is scratching it. It has a short life right away; it starts dying the day you unpack it. But it’s beautiful. That first day, it’s beautiful.”
While flip phones have gained a lot of attention this month at the Mobile World Congress, the annual industry gathering where new consumer devices are launched and ideas are exchanged, they’re also going to be expensive. Samsung’s Galaxy Fold will cost around $2,000, while Huawei’s Mate X has a $2,600 price tag.