Energizer also has a folding phone, and it doesn't completely suck

With Energizer grabbing headlines with its 18,000mAh smartphone, the company is back for more with the foldable Power Max P8100S.

Quietly announced during MWC 2019, the Power Max P8100S features two displays — a 6-inch display with Full HD+ resolution on the outside and an 8.1-inch display with Full HD+ resolution on the inside. The phone is unlike the HUAWEI Mate X, which features one 8-inch display that turns into two smaller displays when folded.

We didn’t get a chance to use any of the displays on the Power Max P8100S, since the phone was in a glass case. According to Energizer, Samsung and Huawei have priority at the production factories where these displays are made. As a result, Energizer was unable to get all the parts for the model shown off in Barcelona.

Even so, this might be the ugliest hinge design for a foldable smartphone we’ve seen so far. The hinge’s design reminds me of the part of the jetway that looks like an accordion and extends to the airplane. The design is likely cost-effective for Energizer, but it also has us a bit concerned about how well it’ll hold up over time.

At least the rest of the Power Max P8100S reads off like a proper 2019 flagship smartphone. The phone features dual rear 48- and 12-megapixel cameras, a 24MP selfie camera, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of expandable storage, and a huge 10,000mAh battery. That battery will come in handy when you use 5G — yes, the Power Max P8100S from Energizer has 5G.

More surprising is the price — the Power Max P8100S will run you 850 euros (~$966), which makes this the cheapest foldable and 5G-capable smartphone so far. We don’t know when the phone will launch, but we’ll be sure to update this post with that information.

NEXT: Foldable HUAWEI Mate X proves Samsung’s market lead is not assured