Pablo Escobar Fold 1: A foldable smartphone tribute to notorious Colombian drug boss

Right now, the smartphone industry is evidently flooded with foldable phone technology brought about by the likes of Huawei, Samsung and Motorola. The latter is clearly in the lead with the Razr's nostalgic clamshell form factor and retro elements. Meanwhile, the Chinese electronics outfit just recently launched the Mate X. Now, these three are vying for the attention of consumers this holiday season, but another company hopes to upstage the trio. The Pablo Escobar Fold 1 (PE Fold 1) is a flexible mobile phone that sounds ridiculous at first but is actually a fully functional device.

This product is the idea of Roberto Escobar, the brother of the phone's namesake. He reportedly claims that the handset is more durable than the Galaxy Fold. Despite looking like it is crafted out of metal, the PE Fold 1 is mostly made out of plastic, which the manufacturer claims is "unbreakable." At $349, it is the most affordable foldable offering out there right now.

Despite clearly belonging to the flexible handset category, the manufacturer reveals that it does not want to compete against Samsung. On the other hand, he apparently wants to surpass the iPhone instead. An article from Gizmodo details his plans to market the PE Fold 1. "I have told many people that I would beat Apple and I will," states Escobar. "I cut the networks and retailers, to sell to customers phones that can fold for only $349, phones which in stores cost thousands of dollars by Samsung and others," he added.

Furthermore, it appears the Escobar is working on a class-action lawsuit to be filed against the Cupertino, California-based tech company for $30 billion next year. Going back to the device, analysts have pointed out that it seems to be rebranded Royole FlexPai. As such, it sports a 7.8-inch flexible AMOLED display with a 4:3 aspect ratio.

The PE Fold 1 runs on Android 9 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Series SoC and a 6 GB or 8 GB RAM depending on the storage size. It is available in 128 GB or 256 GB variants. Powering the handset is a 4,000 mAh battery. Ultimately, the handset's quality might be questionable given the reviews the FlexPai has been getting from journalists and users.