Will Motorola launch foldable and rollable smartphone before Samsung?

Motorola already offers foldable smartphones, such as the Razr 40 and the Razr 40 Ultra. At MWC 2023, the company also showcased a rollable phone, the Rizr. Now, Motorola is thinking about combining the two form factors for making a device that has a foldable design and rollable displays. Let’s take a look.

Website Rating has come across a new patent from Motorola about a phone that has a book-like foldable design, similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. The device has a regular display on the outside, allowing you to use it as a regular smartphone, and two rollable displays on the inside, which have a gap in between and can roll upwards.

As there is a gap between the two displays, you can’t use them together to watch a video or browse the web as the gap would spoil the viewing experience. However, you can use one to watch a video and the other to use an app, just like that on the Microsoft Surface Duo. I’m sure that most people would find the second scenario useless.

So, the phone not only has a complex design that’s prone to failures but the functionality it offers at the cost of reliability is also not very useful. All-in-all the device is very impractical. On the brighter side, this is just a patent. Motorola will most likely not make this device a reality. With this patent, the company might be just trying to protect its ideas, no matter how ridiculous they are. So no, it doesn't look like Motorola has any real plans to launch a rollable and foldable smartphone before Samsung.