FUTURE
TECHH
Arubixs Bendable Smartphone
For the past few years, the standing lazy punchline about wearables has been something about awkwardly strapping a computer or a phone to your body. Finally, a crowdfunding campaign has taken the joke to the next level and made that punchline a reality.
San Francisco Bay Area startup Arubixs has designed a flexible screen phablet dubbed "Portal" that slides into a dual-strap arm cradle that extends about halfway up the forearm from the wrist. It seems equal parts brilliant and ridiculous. We've seen flexible displays like this for years now -- mostly as demonstration models at CES that never make it to market -- but this is the first design I've seen that's built entirely around the flexibility of the screen.
While the idea of essentially strapping a bendable phone the size of a Galaxy Note to your arm seems like it would be a tough sell even in a futuristic sci-fi universe, the Portal's specs are hard to ignore.
Arubixs claims its 6-inch TFT display is also scratch-resistant and reinforced by a flexible Kevlar exterior. It has 2GB RAM, a total of four cameras, 64GB of storage, a full suite of sensors, NFC, Bluetooth, LTE, wireless charging and a proprietary 3,200mAh flexible battery. The processor is yet to be determined. Portal will run a skinned version of Android and respond to touch, gesture and motion-based commands.
Part of me really likes the basic concept here, which is a single device that can act as smartwatch, fitness tracker and phone all at once, but the whole thing reminds me a little too much of the guy at the office party who tries a little too hard. Right down to the Indiegogo pitch video below, which at first seems like a satire from an episode of HBO's "Silicon Valley."
But if we can just throw away the absurd steel-banded "executive" model, and focus on the idea of a large, rugged wearable device for active uses like sports or even working in the field, Portal starts to seem like a pretty cool potential niche product.If you're such a shameless phablet fan that you'd have no problem wearing one on your sleeve -- or as a sleeve -- you can claim a Portal via an Indiegogo campaign right now, starting at $349. If you prefer something a little more subtle, the company says it's working on a smaller, 4-inch model.
"We started with a 6-inch display first, then realized in testing (that) a smaller one could close the gap for everyone's needs". "In early 2016 we will be introducing a more compact 4-inch. I personally prefer the 4-inch myself and wear that mock-up around town all the time."