 Folding phones are boring. Look, we've had the first wave of foldable devices and they're neat, but you've seen all that already. This is about what comes next after the current generation of foldables. Something like the Tri-Fold from TCL, a wild new concept folding tablet phone thing. Unlike most foldables, the Tri-Fold has two hinges, which lets it fold up into thirds. You can use it as a phone, you can unfold it once to use as a bigger screen or fully unfold it into a full-size tablet. It's not a halfway compromise like some of the other foldables that we've seen, which basically turn into just slightly wider phone displays. This is a full-blown tablet. It's nearly as big as an iPad, but you can still fit it in your pocket. The screen folds from a 10-inch tablet down to a 6.65-inch phone. You can also open it two-thirds of the way and prop that up. It'll auto-rotate so you can use it in whatever orientation you want. There's a lot of weird use cases that you could probably use this for. The screen on this one is a 3K panel, but again, that's just this prototype. We have no idea if the finished version will have that. But the Tri-Fold shows just how hard it's gonna be to turn these ideas into reality. I've gotten to play around with the prototype for a bit and it's really rough to use right now. It is incredibly heavy for a phone. It's got those big metal hinges and there are three separate batteries to power all those displays. It's basically three phones. And even though it's really thin as a tablet, the phone mode is super thick. And that's before you're worrying about things like the software, which is basically non-existent, durability, which is a huge question, or price, which who even knows? But looking even further into the future, TCL also had a very early mock-up of a rollable phone. This is a really cool idea. It's a phone that has a fully flexible display that slides around the side and behind the phone, and then could roll back out to become a larger display when you need more space. The way it will, in theory, work is that there's gonna be motors on the inside of the phone and you'll press a button and it'll expand out from a 6.75 inch display to a 7.8 inch screen. Now, that doesn't sound like a lot, but you're actually getting almost double the screen space. It's almost twice as wide. The whole system is actually pretty similar to the rollable OLED TV that LG has been showing off for years. Now, again, this is a really early concept. It's not even a functional device, just plastic and a screen that's literally just a sheet of paper. Is this a good idea? Who knows? It does avoid some of the issues of current foldables, like those easily breakable hinges and the creased display, which is cool, but it's almost guaranteed to have issues of its own. Moving parts, they're tricky. Now, the tri-fold is just a proof of concept and the plastic sliding one even more so. You won't actually be able to buy either of these devices and it's not clear if TCL is actually gonna make products based on these concepts in the future. So why should you care? Well, first of all, because it's cool. I mean, look at this thing. It's a phone that unfolds into a giant full-size tablet and it actually turns on and runs Android. It's like a science fiction prop, but it's also important because TCL is planning on eventually making foldable and rollable phones that might actually look like these, possibly as early as next year. The company says that it's experimenting with dozens of different form factors right now. So it's possible that phones like these could be real one day. Look, phones have basically been the same for the last decade, black boxes with touchscreens. Devices like the tri-fold or that sliding concept, even if they're not here yet, show off what the future of phones might one day look like. And that's a really exciting idea. Thanks so much for watching. If you want to see more videos about cool phones, check out our Galaxy S20 Ultra review. You can actually buy that one. Check out the review, see if you want to. And like and subscribe for more great videos like this.
 Folding phones are boring.
 Look, we've had the first wave of foldable devices
 and they're neat, but you've seen all that already.
 This is about what comes next
 after the current generation of foldables.
 Something like the Tri-Fold from TCL,
 a wild new concept folding tablet phone thing.
 Unlike most foldables,
 the Tri-Fold has two hinges,
 which lets it fold up into thirds.
 You can use it as a phone,
 you can unfold it once to use as a bigger screen
 or fully unfold it into a full-size tablet.
 It's not a halfway compromise
 like some of the other foldables that we've seen,
 which basically turn into
 just slightly wider phone displays.
 This is a full-blown tablet.
 It's nearly as big as an iPad,
 but you can still fit it in your pocket.
 The screen folds from a 10-inch tablet
 down to a 6.65-inch phone.
 You can also open it two-thirds of the way
 and prop that up.
 It'll auto-rotate so you can use it
 in whatever orientation you want.
 There's a lot of weird use cases
 that you could probably use this for.
 The screen on this one is a 3K panel,
 but again, that's just this prototype.
 We have no idea if the finished version will have that.
 But the Tri-Fold shows just how hard it's gonna be
 to turn these ideas into reality.
 I've gotten to play around with the prototype for a bit
 and it's really rough to use right now.
 It is incredibly heavy for a phone.
 It's got those big metal hinges
 and there are three separate batteries
 to power all those displays.
 It's basically three phones.
 And even though it's really thin as a tablet,
 the phone mode is super thick.
 And that's before you're worrying about things
 like the software, which is basically non-existent,
 durability, which is a huge question,
 or price, which who even knows?
 But looking even further into the future,
 TCL also had a very early mock-up of a rollable phone.
 This is a really cool idea.
 It's a phone that has a fully flexible display
 that slides around the side and behind the phone,
 and then could roll back out to become a larger display
 when you need more space.
 The way it will, in theory, work
 is that there's gonna be motors on the inside of the phone
 and you'll press a button and it'll expand out
 from a 6.75 inch display to a 7.8 inch screen.
 Now, that doesn't sound like a lot,
 but you're actually getting almost double the screen space.
 It's almost twice as wide.
 The whole system is actually pretty similar
 to the rollable OLED TV that LG has been showing off
 for years.
 Now, again, this is a really early concept.
 It's not even a functional device,
 just plastic and a screen
 that's literally just a sheet of paper.
 Is this a good idea?
 Who knows?
 It does avoid some of the issues of current foldables,
 like those easily breakable hinges
 and the creased display, which is cool,
 but it's almost guaranteed to have issues of its own.
 Moving parts, they're tricky.
 Now, the tri-fold is just a proof of concept
 and the plastic sliding one even more so.
 You won't actually be able to buy either of these devices
 and it's not clear if TCL is actually gonna make products
 based on these concepts in the future.
 So why should you care?
 Well, first of all, because it's cool.
 I mean, look at this thing.
 It's a phone that unfolds into a giant full-size tablet
 and it actually turns on and runs Android.
 It's like a science fiction prop,
 but it's also important because TCL is planning
 on eventually making foldable and rollable phones
 that might actually look like these,
 possibly as early as next year.
 The company says that it's experimenting
 with dozens of different form factors right now.
 So it's possible that phones like these
 could be real one day.
 Look, phones have basically been the same
 for the last decade, black boxes with touchscreens.
 Devices like the tri-fold or that sliding concept,
 even if they're not here yet,
 show off what the future of phones might one day look like.
 And that's a really exciting idea.
 Thanks so much for watching.
 If you want to see more videos about cool phones,
 check out our Galaxy S20 Ultra review.
 You can actually buy that one.
 Check out the review, see if you want to.
 And like and subscribe for more great videos like this.