The foldable Royole FlexPai is the worst of both worlds
It’s neither a good-looking phone nor a good-looking tablet. A review by Chris Chang, staff writer for Abacus, a sister tech site of the Post.
I finally had a chance to try out the world’s first foldable phone -- the Royole FlexPai. Being able to fold a phone like this certainly feels super cool. But the cool factor here is negated by the FlexPai's awful design and buggy software.
Let’s get some of the bad stuff out of the way first.
The FlexPai is thick, big and plasticky. Even though the phone starts at US$1,312, it doesn’t feel premium at all. The thick bezels look awful, especially to the left of the display in tablet mode. That's where you’ll find a super-thick bezel that houses the dual cameras.
The display also has issues. The 7.8-inch flexible screen is strangely dim in certain spots, notably in the center and the corners. And while folding a smartphone is cool, the screen material that makes it possible feels cheap. Touching the screen feels like touching a plastic Chinese iPad knockoff from five years ago.
While folding the phone does feel cool, it actually requires a bit of force to both fold and unfold. Fortunately, I did eventually get used to how much force is necessary for folding, and it feels like the hinge is built to last. During my first few tries, though, I was afraid that I might break it.
