Motorola’s Adaptive Display Concept is a bendable smartphone that can be worn as a smartwatch

Rollable and bendable displays have captured the attention of the tech world in the last couple of years, primarily implemented in the foldable phones and rollable TVs released by mainstream consumer electronics giants like Samsung and LG. Now, Motorola wants to bring a bendable smartphone right onto your wrist. Truly the next logical progression from the Motorola Razir rollable concept, revealed at CES 2023.

The Lenovo-owned brand showed off the concept of a smartphone that can wrap around your wrist at their Tech World 2023 event along with other interesting AI technologies and innovative flexible hardware. According to them, the bendable screen can be “shaped into different forms” based on the end user’s need.

Designer: Lenovo

When the display is flat on a surface the 6.9-inch screen behaves like a smartphone. Then in the bend upright mode functioning as a 6.9-inch Android phone, it can be used to take video calls. Lastly, it can be worn around the wrist to function like a swanky smartwatch. Motorola calls it the Adaptive Display Concept, equipped with the bendable FHD+ pOLED display. The bendable display wraps around the wrist magnetically on top of a metal band. While the flexible display can make the physical transition seamless, the user interface transition to adapt to the change is taken care of by the Android OS (for now).

Now that the foldables are more polished in their looks and implementation of the functionality for early adoption by eager tech enthusiasts, Motorola wants to be proactive in making the next big leap, once foldable phones become mainstream. A smartphone that can be your smartwatch or a gadget for creating AI-generative content and application usage is ultra-futuristic.

Right now, smartphones are mostly rigid pieces of brick that could do with the evolution that gives them more flexibility in multiple use-case scenarios. Motorola’s Adaptive Display Concept is something a user would actually want to use if the implementation is done right when it finally rolls out in the consumer market.