After trying the Motorola ‘Rizr’ concept, I’m a believer in rollable phones

Ben Schoon | Apr 27 2023 - 6:46 am PT

Smartphones are entering a new era, with something new appearing alongside the slabs we’ve become so used to. Foldables have shown their worth, and are growing quickly, but on the other side, there are rollable phones, which have yet to hit the market. This week at Motorola’s HQ, I had a chance to try out the Motorola “Rizr” rollable concept, and it really showed the potential of this technology.

The Motorola “Rizr” has been floating around for a while now, and made its first in-person appearance at MWC 2023 earlier this year.

This week, I was able to spend a few minutes playing around with a “Rizr” unit in person, and I walked away more excited than ever for rollables to make their inevitable debut.

The idea behind the “Rizr” is not all that different from something like the Galaxy Flip or Motorola’s own Razr foldables. Offer a big smartphone screen like any other flagship, but in a device that’s significantly smaller. Where foldables accomplish that with a display that folds in half, the “Rizr” rolls around 40% of its display around the bottom and back of the device. It leaves a 5-inch display that’s incredibly compact by default, but that expands to a full-size 6.5-inch panel whenever you need it.

The display can expand either when you double-tap the power button or depending on actions within the software. For instance, when you open a YouTube video, or start drafting an email, the display expands to either hit the right aspect ratio or to simply give you more space for content. While this takes a moment on Motorola’s current iteration of this design, it honestly works incredibly well. Just focusing on the content at one point, I didn’t even notice the display changing size. It’s incredible.

Beyond that, the “Rizr” uses this setup in a few interesting ways. Since the display moves, this design hides the earpiece speaker and selfie camera under the panel, and simply moves it down to expose those components when needed. Again, this is pretty seamless, and brilliant, too.

When the display is back down, you’ll have a working display on the back. This can be used for displaying the time and notifications in an always-on fashion, or for other functions. When the camera is open, you can use that back portion to show what the camera sees, either for selfies or those in the shot, and also to display an emoji to help get a smile out of your subject.

All of this is super cool, but it does come with some downsides. The “Rizr” needs to have a case installed to work well, as without a case the fragile panel is exposed, and the moving parts are easily felt in your hand.

But even with the case, the panel tends to stick up a bit, which leads to a “bubble” when the display is expanded that you can actually press down on. It’s jarring compared to even modern foldables, but it’s easily excusable for such an early device.

To me, though, the focus here wasn’t really on this device in particular. There’s a ton of validity to Motorola’s concept, and I’d absolutely use it – frankly, I think it’s a better solution to the size problem than a clamshell foldable. What really stood out to me was just what rollables can do going forward. Integrating a rollable panel that’s well integrated into a phone to make it a little wider, or a little taller, or like Motorola’s concept, just allows for a smaller sized device, the possibilities are just endless here. We’re probably years away from a polished rollable experience that doesn’t come with high prices and/or big compromises, but the foundation is being built, and it’s fascinating to watch.

But, thus far, Motorola has been coy on what it plans to do with the “Rizr” – even that name isn’t official, as Motorola reminded us this week that, officially, this is simply the “rollable concept phone.” The company isn’t committing to a public release, but it really seems that’s the plan. The effort Motorola is going through with showing off these prototypes – which are fascinatingly built at Motorola’s HQ in Chicago – and testing them so intensely. The company told us that both internal and external tests are being conducted with concept units to get feedback.

That’d be an awful lot of effort for a device that isn’t intended to actually see the light of day.

I’m hopeful for the “Rizr” to hit the market, but more importantly, I’m excited for what that release will mean for the broader smartphone industry. Someone has to do a rollable first, and with LG having thrown in the towel too early for the planned release of its Rollable, Motorola is best set to cross the finish line.

I can’t wait.