iTWire - OPPO, Japanese designer unveil new slide-phone design concept

Tuesday, 15 December 2020 10:33

OPPO, Japanese designer unveil new slide-phone design concept

A mock-up of the slide-phone concept design. Supplied

Chinese smartphone vendor OPPO has teamed up with Japanese industrial design studio nendo and come up with two new design concepts for smartphones and music devices.

The two new concepts are:

• a "slide phone" that can be folded to the size of a credit card with three foldable screens, attached by hinges folding the same direction; and
• "music-link", a collection of devices centered around a pair of TWS earphones that includes a smartwatch, an AI speaker, a portable charger and a wireless charger.

Both designs were presented at the fourth China International Industrial Design Expo held in Wuhan from 11 to 13 December, with the chief executive and chief designer of nendo, Oki Sato, being responsible in the main.

The slide-phone design concept. Supplied

OPPO also showed off a number of its classic product designs showcasing its research into form design, materials and interaction from the time the company started.

The Expo is an annual event that focuses on industrial design in China; this year the theme was "New Designs, New Trends, New Momentum".

A statement from OPPO said the idea for the slide-phone came from the realisation that while users rely on their smartphones to interact with the outside world, the growing trend towards larger devices has become an issue for many.

This led to the slide-phone design which has three foldable screens attached by hinges which fold in the same direction.

The music-link design concept. Supplied

"By providing users with the flexibility to change the form of the phone as needed, users may benefit from the ability to change its size to suit the occasion," OPPO said.

"Further, a stylus inserted in the phone allows users to increase productivity when using the phone for work and other more complex tasks."

All devices for the music-link — TWS earphones, a smartwatch, an AI speaker, a portable charger and a wireless charger — have sleek designs to reflect current tastes.

When the earphones and charging case are placed on the speaker, users can switch from listening on their headphones to listening to output from the speaker.

"his symbiotic design between devices, and the emphasis on portability and convenience, reflects OPPO's integration of technology and human-centricity in its design philosophy," the company said.

Said Sato: "I was impressed by OPPO's philosophy, which goes beyond leveraging the latest technology and pursues a comfortable relationship between people and their products through a human-centric approach to design.

"I am looking forward to seeing new concepts from the OPPO team as well as seeing how they manage to further strike a balance between technology and emotional engagement."

OPPO Industrial Design lead designer Xiao Bo added, "nendo's design is closely aligned with OPPO's human-centric philosophy. OPPO aims to bring users a delightful product experience with cutting-edge technology and aesthetic design.

"This partnership is built upon a conviction that, to create a ground-breaking tech product with the right level of comfort for users, we must focus on 'human'. Moving forward, we will double down on this approach by engineering products with a more seamless, user-friendly experience."

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