We tried on Lenovo's bendable phone that you can wear like a watch
CNET went hands-on with Lenovo's wild, flexible smartphone concept phone -- the CPlus -- which wraps around your wrist using a segmented screen.
Forget curved phones! Lenovo's new concept smartphone uses a flexible screen and segmented body to deftly convert from watchband to handset and back again.
We finally got our wrists under this bendable marvel, which was trapped beneath glass for most of the day before Lenovo let a spokesperson carefully wrap it around our wrists. It's officially known as the CPlus -- "Don't ask me why it's called that," Lenovo's CTO, Peter Hortensius, said at a press briefing later -- and it'll come in two sizes, large and small. CNET was able to try on the large size on three editors' wrists. It was definitely too loose for the smaller ones.
The CPlus, which is not in production, sports a 4.26-inch flexible display, runs the Android operating system and will come in a choice of 12 different colors.
Lenovo knows that an unusual device like this articulated phone requires different thinking. One time a spokesperson bent the CPlus and the interface "cracked" like shattered glass, a behavior you'd expect from bending your typical phone (remember Bendgate, or is that too soon?).
CNET tries on Lenovo's bendy CPlus concept phone.
This isn't the first time we've seen concept devices with flexible displays and chassis. Samsung, LG and Nokia have also worked with twistable, bendable devices, though none have yet come to market.
Placing traditionally inflexible components, like batteries, in bendable items has been a formidable challenge, but with any luck Lenovo will buck the trend and have better success.
For all the news from Lenovo Tech World check out our live, in-person coverage of the event.