Nokia Kinetic previewed — gives glimpse of bendy future

The Nokia Kinetic – one of the world’s first truly bendable smartphones – got demoed at Nokia World 2011.

So is the beginning of the end for boring, perfectly rigid, smartphones like the iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S2? Not quite, unfortunately. But the fact that Nokia had a physical handset, which users could play with at its annual expo suggests that the technology isn’t too far away from being finalised.

‘The company was showing off multiple Nokia Kinetic devices, working portable electronics that can be bent and twisted but still work,’ reports Into Mobile.

It added: ‘one device looked like a large touchscreen slate phone but you could bend it to scroll through music and photos. This is definitely a prototype device but one could easily see phone capabilities being thrown into there one day.’

Of course this technology will take a long time to finalise, just imagine trying to get Microsoft to sign-off on something as unpredictable as a bendable phone – the company is only just coming around to microSD cards.

‘The other Nokia Kinetic device could take pictures and display them in its elongated teardrop shape. The plastic sturdiness of its casing meant that you could drop it on the ground or bend it and it would still work. A representative even said you could wash it under the tap and it wouldn’t hinder the device’s usability,’ says Into Mobile.

Unfortunately this type of technology is probably a long way off. But how long is ‘long’?

If we were being conservative we’d say about five to six years. But knowing how fast the mobile technology industry moves, it could just as easily be here in two.

Here is the video: