Enlarge (credit: FT)

In late 2020, Huawei was fighting for its survival as a mobile phone maker.

A few months earlier, the Trump administration had hit the Chinese company with crippling sanctions, cutting it off from global semiconductor supply chains.

The sanctions prevented anyone without a permit from making the chips Huawei designed, and the company was struggling to procure new chips to launch more advanced handsets.

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  Smartphone turned wearable. [credit: Motorola ]

Lenovo's Motorola mobile brand is resurfacing the idea of the bendable, bracelet-like smartphone. Demoed at Lenovo Tech World '23 in Austin, Texas, yesterday, Motorola's "adaptive display" revisits a concept that we've seen discussed for years but that doesn't seem any closer to actually being sold.

On stage at the event, Lexi Valasek, 312 Labs innovation strategy and product research Lead for Motorola Mobility, proudly held a prototype. The smartphone looked ordinary to start: a slab of OLED with a chassis that's a bold orange on the backside. But Valasek quickly bent the phone into an arch shape, where it stood on her hand before she wrapped it around her wrist like a cuff.

The phone seemed to adapt to its new positioning rapidly, quickly showing a large clock, making the device feel like a smartwatch.