Daily Authority: 😲 Brand new Motorola-ble

😁 Good day, and welcome back to the Daily Authority. Somehow it’s Monday again and nearly the end of February. Where has the time gone? Before I waste any more of it, let’s get straight into today’s top story from MWC 2023.

We go hands on with Motorola’s rizr

Motorola brought the conceptual heat to a chilly Barcelona with its latest rollable phone concept. Dubbed the Motorola rizr, the phone caught Rita’s eye. Here are her thoughts after spending an afternoon with the device.

rizr basics

• Motorola showcased a concept rollable phone back in October 2022.
• This week, at MWC 2023, the company provided us with a working concept.
• Called the rizr rollable phone concept, the device has a wonderfully compact form factor, but when you need more display, it momentarily scrolls out extra screen and tucks away when you’re done.
• Rollable phones are generally more ergonomic in theory than foldables, and the rizr proves this in practice.

Watch me roll

• The Motorola rizr’s party piece is its 5-inch 15:9 POLED display.
• In this form, the phone is tiny compared to modern flagships that often pack 6-inch-and-above displays.
• The screen also wraps around the back of the phone, covering a third of its rear plate.
• This “secondary” display can be used as an always-on notifications panel or a camera preview display.
• When the power button is tapped twice, most of this rear panel rolls up to the front of the phone.
• This extends the screen to a much roomier 22:9 6.5-inch panel.
• All in all, this process takes around three seconds.
• Notably, Android accommodates the larger display by realigning icons and stretching apps.
• At this size, the rizr feels much more like a traditional flagship.
• If you double-tap the power button once again, the screen retracts.
• “It can also drop down a little further to reveal the front-facing camera and speaker grille,” says Rita.

Questions remain

• Rollable phones have yet to hit the mass market, and many questions remain.
• The rizr packs a minor 3,000mAh battery, which may not be enough to power you through the day.
• There’s also doubt over the form factor’s ruggedness.
• Motorola kept the rizr in a case for the duration of Rita’s hands-on.
• “Without it, the display would be entirely bare on the bottom and back, meaning you couldn’t put it down on a surface without worrying about how many dust particles were on there,” she notes.
• As for when the rizr will debut, that remains unknown.
• Motorola’s 312 Labs division targets a “couple of years ahead,” but that remains to be seen.
• We had already seen concepts from LG and Oppo a few years ago, so the technology is there.
• But is it truly ready?
• Overall, we’re fully behind rollable phones and hope they land sooner rather than later.

Roundup

💻 More rollables at MWC 2023: This Lenovo laptop doubles its screen size at the touch of a button (Android Authority).

👐 We also went hands-on with the TCL NXTPAPER 11 tablet in Barcelona (Android Authority).

📱 Xiaomi 13 Pro hands-on impressions: Lucky number 13? (Android Authority).

🗺️ Staying with Xiaomi, MIUI 14’s global release schedule is now live. Know when your phone will get the update (Android Authority).

✒️ AI-generated fiction is flooding literary magazines — but not fooling anyone (The Verge).

🐹 As chat-based AI becomes more pervasive, we are all once again tech companies’ guinea pigs, argues this piece (The Wall Street Journal).

💬 Final AI story today and a super read: Tech companies are reportedly hiring “prompt engineers” to train chat-based platforms (Washington Post).

👀 Getting a word in: I tried Bing Chat on mobile, and I’m not going back to Google Assistant (Android Authority).

🔓 Signal will ditch the UK if a new encryption law is passed, according to the firm’s CEO (Ars Technica).

🧰 Watch and wonder as we try to fix a Nokia G22 in five minutes (Android Authority).

🚗 Work from car? Mercedes-Benz is bringing WebEx meetings to the new E-Class sedans (Engadget).

💥 Zoom and enhance: What only works in movies? (r/askreddit).

Monday meme

No lessons or helpful links this week, just a glimpse into ChatGPT’s dread when we poke it with a keyboard.

Have a great day,

Andy Walker, Editor.