Mobile World Congress: A glimpse into future of devices

The Chameleon

Wouldn’t it be nice if your phone reflected your mood and matched your attire? Like mood lighting, you can set the shade of your smartphone’s rear panel using colour-changing technology Tecno showcased at the MWC. The smartphone’s back panel displays colour patterns, and with 1,600 shades at its disposal, you’ll surely find one that suits you best. The tech uses a grid of sub-micron prism material that changes direction when an electric field is applied. By precisely controlling the direction of the prism, the material can scatter light at multiple wavelengths, with the colour changing in just 0.03 seconds. Tecno claims the tech doesn’t impact power consumption and the patterns can be changed 2 million times.

Just Do It (Yourself)

While consumers are demanding the right to repair from the world’s top smartphone makers, HMD Global—that makes Nokia phones—is designing them such that users can easily repair them. The first one is the G22, and HMD Global has partnered with global repair company iFixit. Users can access guides on the iFixit website and purchase Fix Kits that contain the tools and parts needed to replace flat batteries, broken screens, bent charging ports and scratched covers. Do note that you should do this only if you love tinkering.

Standing Tall

Admit it. You love the ease that comes with an ultra-portable notebook but hate squinting into the somewhat cramped screen. What if you could have the convenience of a small laptop with the luxury of a larger screen? Lenovo’s concept ThinkPad gives you just that—a notebook with a 12-inch screen that expands into a 15.3-inch square display with the touch of a button. Using twin motors, the display unrolls vertically and is held taut by attached springs. It’s a tad slow though, taking 10 seconds to either roll out or retract. But it could be well worth the wait as the vertically expanded screen helps to increase productivity, especially for tasks such as editing documents or coding. Housing a rollable display, three USB-C ports and a 3.5-mm audio jack, this won’t be the slimmest laptop in the market.

Vertical Limit

Remember those futuristic images of rollable all-screen smartphones? We’re not there yet but Motorola did showcase a working prototype of its rollable smartphone. The phone features the classic slider design, where the 6.5-inch screen rolls out at the push of a button. You can push the button to retract the flexible OLED panel, which wraps around the bottom edge on to the back panel to act as a secondary display. In the retracted state, the secondary display can be used to access notifications or as a camera viewfinder to preview shots. The best part? This rollable concept gives you a large screen without compromising on the small form factor, which is a perfect fit for your pocket.