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  • Have you ever thought to yourself 'I totally wish my phone could fold in half'?

  • If so, join the club.

  • And if not, now all the wildest dreams you've never had are coming true with the world's

  • first foldable phone you can actually buy.

  • It's called the FlexPai from a company called Royole.

  • It's literally the first phone with a foldable screen that's commercially available.

  • Yeah, Samsung did have one once upon a time, but they still haven't gotten around to actually

  • releasing the Galaxy Fold yet.

  • So I'll believe it when I see it and can actually buy one.

  • Inside the box is whatever this is.

  • And here is the FlexPai with some instructions on how to fold and unfold the phone written

  • on the outer covering.

  • Honestly, I think it looks pretty cool.

  • It feels solid and heavy.

  • I held one of these for the first time at CES this year.

  • But obviously, since that was a demo unit and not my own personal device, I wasn't going

  • to try to see what happens when it's bent both directions.

  • Today though, this one here is all mine, and there's no one here to stop us.

  • Let's get started.

  • [Intro]

  • Right out of the box there are some confidence diminishing instructions that flash across

  • the screen, like 'only charge the phone with the device unfolded.'

  • And then look here at this massive list of instructions: don't drop it, keep the surface

  • dry and clean, please avoid sharp or pointed objects....uh huh, got it, sure thing.

  • And right below that, it keeps going on to say no screen protectors are allowed, and

  • the phone can't be opened if the temperature is below freezing.

  • It also looks like the side of the phone is super magnetic.

  • This is going to be fun.

  • Opening and closing the phone automatically changes how the apps are displayed on the

  • screen.

  • Magnets are the thing that holds the phone shut in the closed position with a very satisfyingly

  • hard click.

  • The magnets will definitely keep the phone from flopping open on its own.

  • The hinge of the phone here in the center is covered with a very dark blue rubberish

  • material and held in place by a series of hex screws.

  • It takes up a good portion of the back panel real estate.

  • It looks like one of those wrinkly dogs, or even a slinky that can be bent back and forth.

  • Good luck slapping a dbrand skin on this one.

  • When it does snap closed, it leaves just enough room inside for a pencil to clip into the

  • gap between the back halves.

  • Might be a perfect spot for a future stylus...just saying.

  • The two back panels have a subtle shimmer that we see on most smartphones these days

  • - low key, and it doesn't really draw attention to itself...well, besides the fact that it

  • folds in half.

  • That's a minor detail of course.

  • You can see how reflective and shiny the screen is as well.

  • The scratch test is going to be super interesting.

  • The weird thing to me though is that the screen is always going to be exposed on the outside

  • of the phone – always.

  • The whole thing is just there...vulnerable.

  • The whole system functions like an Android tablet, but then has the ability to fold closed

  • to be the size of a phone.

  • It also has memory enough to remember which app was open on which side of the phone each

  • time you flip it around.

  • It also has a little center options bar in the fold of the phone.

  • Honestly, it looks pretty slick.

  • Yeah, the thing is a bit thick, but if it's durable, I could totally see myself using

  • one of these.

  • Trying to think of logical reasons of why I would actually ever need a foldable phone

  • though.

  • It would probably mostly be just watching movies and YouTube since, you know, I spend

  • a lot of time on YouTube.

  • This Flexi-boy can watch videos in full screen mode while the phone is folded.

  • And it can also watch full screen videos in the unfolded mode.

  • Honestly, pretty darn cool.

  • A company called Asurion did a study one time and found that people check their phones on

  • average about 80 times a day.

  • And judging by the amount of people I see texting and driving, I believe that number.

  • Royole says on their website that this phone is good for over 200,000 folds.

  • So if we're unfolding this FlexPai 80 times a day, under perfect conditions of course,

  • this phone would last almost 7 whole years.

  • That's pretty fantastic considering that the Galaxy fold lasted about 7 whole days.

  • Remember this thing is available to buy right now for a cool $1,300 dollars.

  • Let's see what we get for that.

  • Inside the box we get a SIM card removal tool and a microfiber cloth, some USB-C braided

  • headphones, and a USB-C power cable, and a branded power brick.

  • There's no case or screen protectors inside the box.

  • That's interesting.

  • Now that we know everything is working properly, let's start with the scratch test.

  • Knowing what we know about the laws of physics, it's pretty safe to say that the screen is

  • not going to be made from glass, since glass is glass and glass does not bend.

  • The surface of the FlexPai has to be made from a flexible optically clear plastic.

  • The hardness level of that plastic though is up for debate.

  • In this particular case we see that the level 2 pick leaves no marks on the screen.

  • But the level 3 pick, as it's applied to the surface of the flattened phone, starts leaving

  • indented grooves all along the whole surface of the display.

  • This is why there were warnings when I first turned on the phone.

  • The FlexPai gets permanently damaged at a very soft Mohs level 3.

  • This is the main reason having a screen on the outside of the fold is a bad idea.

  • When it's in your pocket, both sides of the screen are rubbing up against the sides of

  • your pocket.

  • And again, when it's folded on a table, one screen side will always be touching something

  • hard.

  • There is no safe zone.

  • Watch as my fingernail can also damage the screen permanently.

  • This thing is going to get pretty wrecked with every day use – especially since screen

  • protectors are not allowed.

  • Samsung's implementation of having the screen fold up inside the phone is hypothetically

  • the better of the two methods since the closed fold protects the plastic screen.

  • But, you know, their phone also only lasted a week.

  • So you win some, and you lose some.

  • Checking out the top of the FlexPai, moving from the plastic layer up to the top panel,

  • there's a definite ridge.

  • And that panel is made from glass.

  • My razor is doing no damage to the surface of that at least.

  • The internal magnet is also pulling my razor all over the place.

  • Even holding up my pry tool with its own magical magnetic strength.

  • It's super strong.

  • Probably because that hinge won't let the phone stay closed without it.

  • A little trick I learned from Marquez with this magnet paper.

  • We can see the large rectangular magnet right dead center inside the glass panel.

  • We can also see the two bottom loud speakers in the center of each half.

  • And over there in the bottom corner is the vibration motor, also made from magnets.

  • There's another large rectangular magnet on the other side of the phone that will keep

  • things shut.

  • Pretty darn cool.

  • We'll take a look at the insides of the FlexPai during the teardown...you know, if it survives

  • the rest of this durability test.

  • There is a dual tone LED flash alongside the dual camera lenses.

  • A 16 megapixel normal camera is paired up with a 20 megapixel telephoto camera.

  • No complaints here.

  • Having multiple cameras that offer different perspectives is really the way to go.

  • That's one of the things I'm looking forward to when I finally upgrade my personal Galaxy

  • S8 Plus.

  • With so many sides to analyze, this might take a minute.

  • The bottom right quadrant has a loudspeaker grill.

  • The bottom has the power button, volume up button, fingerprint scanner, and the volume

  • down button, in that exact order.

  • The fingerprint scanner chilling here in the middle is in a weird spot, but I'm not judging.

  • Even after scratching up the surface of the scanner, it was still able to read and recognize

  • my fingerprint nearly every single time.

  • The bottom left quadrant has a whole lot of nothing...except more metal.

  • The hinge portion is where things start to get interesting, and we'll talk more about

  • this in a second.

  • But Royole has literally trademarked the name Cicada Wing as the name for this thing.

  • True story: a cicada is a super gross bug, and I have no idea why in the world they would

  • choose that to brand their phone with.

  • I give Apple a hard time about a lot of things, but at least they don't name their phone parts

  • after bugs.

  • The rubber portion has little air pockets in it to allow the flexing between the hinge

  • segments.

  • The rubber wrinkles sit over the little voids in the hinge...kind of like when Grandma pulls

  • your cheek.

  • It's all kinds of squishy.

  • The top left quadrant has more metal, along with a USB-C charging port and a SIM card

  • tray.

  • It's really nice of Royole to include an SD card slot.

  • Adding movies and media to the large screen will be super easy.

  • The top of the phone has more metal and a few plastic antenna lines.

  • Honestly, the more I see, the more I like.

  • It's a really super fun phone.

  • Checking the back panels where we would normally see glass, this Flexi-boy has large plastic

  • rectangles.

  • The phone is heavy enough that initially I thought the panels were made of glass, but

  • it is not.

  • My razor blade's making short work of the surface which is actually really good news

  • for us because now I get to tell you more about this vial little cicada bug that Royole

  • is so proudly naming their phone after.

  • No, I don't care about most bugs...they don't bother me, I don't bother them.

  • But cicadas are in a realm all of their own.

  • These cousins of crickets swarm out of ground every 13 years.

  • Then they shed their crunchy potato chip skin like a snake, grow wings on either side of

  • their body, and then cicadas make an incredibly loud incessant noise by vibrating membranes

  • on their abdomen.

  • [Cicada sounds] That's more annoying than any sound I've ever made.

  • Then the cicadas go lay their eggs in