Oppo expected to announce foldable phone at an event on Feb 23 in Barcelona

Highlights:

• Oppo announces “Get Closer” event on February 23.
• The company is expected to announce its foldable phone at the event.
• It could also unveil another device with 10x zoom.

Foldable phones slowly, but surely becoming a reality with one already available to consumers courtesy of Royole and its FlexPai smartphone. Oppo is also expected to announce its foldable phone at the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2019 and the company is reportedly sending out media invites for its own “Get Closer” event that will be hosted on February 23, a couple of days ahead of the event. As per GizmoChina, the media invite suggests that the phone manufacturer will be making announcements along the lines of “Connectivity, AI, Industry 4.0, Immersive Content, Disruptive Innovation, Digital Wellness, Digital Trust, and The Future.” The ‘Get Closer’ tagline is also believed a hint towards the announcement of a new device with the 10x optical zoom technology that the Oppo recently announced. 

Late last year, Chuck Wang, Oppo's Product Manager, announced that the smartphone manufacturer will reveal more information about its foldable device this year in February. There is no information on the device’s design or whether it will fold in like Samsung’s foldable device or fold out like the FlexPai. As for the 10X zoom technology by Oppo, it’s expected to work in a manner similar to the 5X optical zoom that the company showcased at MWC two years ago. A previous report suggested that Oppo might reveal the 5x optical zoom tech in the company’s Future Technology Communication Conference on January 16, but that obviously didn’t happen.

Samsung unveiled its foldable smartphone at the Samsung Developers Conference (SDC) in San Francisco. It was showcased under dimmed lights with a black cover camouflage case to hide its design elements but Samsung did say that it features an Infinity Flex Display that measures 7.3 inches with a 1536 x 2152p resolution. When unfolded, the phone has a display aspect ratio of 4.2 and it folds in half to reveal a second display called “cover display.” On the front, it functions as a 4.58-inch phone with a resolution of 840 x 1960 pixels with an aspect ratio of 21:9. Samsung says that the phone can be folded up to fit into a pocket. Although the smartphone manufacturer did not announce how much the smartphone will cost, reports suggest that it could be priced at $1770 (approx Rs 1.25 lakh). 

Related Reads:

Meet FlexPai: The world's first foldable smartphone

Oppo might showcase its 10X hybrid zoom tech on January 16