Polymer ships Readius folding phone with 3G

Polymer Vision this afternoon revealed that it has begun producing the Readius, a device billed as the world's first phone with a foldable display. Even more advanced than Amazon's Kindle, the device uses a 5-inch e-paper display that not only replicates the sharpness of ink but tucks into the main body, creating a much smaller profile than any e-book reader. It also serves as a full-fledged phone: thanks to tri-band HSDPA, the Readius can make calls and connect to the Internet in the US and most other 3G-capable areas of the world. This allows live RSS reading as well as e-mail and other real-time information.

The Readius also supports ActiveSync for synchronizing contacts and e-mail with Microsoft Exchange servers as well as audiobooks, music playback, and basic games stored on microSDHC cards up to 8GB in size. Thanks to the e-paper display, it can last for as much as 30 hours for reading and longer than many phones for calls, the company says. Polymer Vision has not set its price for the Readius but expects the device to be available in shops soon at a price comparable to a smartphone.