Flexy, Wrist-Worn Concept Phone: A Real Life Buzz Lightyear Communicator

Indiegogo concepts are always a bit out there, and this one's no exception: Portal, a six-inch Android-powered smartphone that's impressively capable, waterproof, and flexible enough to wear on your wrist like Buzz Lightyear's communicator. Forget smartwatches, this baby's a goddamned gauntlet.

Judging by the specs, Portal's creators don't want to churn out some mid-range device: The Android-powered device would offer 64GB of storage, four cameras, and the pièce de résistance, a six-inch flexible organic TFT display. All of it would (hypothetically) pack into a flexible, morphable, warpable body that would laugh at your worries about bending it against your buttcheek.

Okay, so you probably don't want to strap your smartphone to your wrist with two watch bands. That's more cumbersome than the most bulky and overgrown of smartwatches.

But you've gotta admit, in a world of slightly-beveled glowing rectangle smartphones that all look pretty much identical from 20 feet away, there's something charming about the audaciousness of a waterproof smartphone you can lash to your forearm like a Roman soldier's vambrace.

Is it audacious enough to reach reality? Well, the track record for crowdfunded dream machines is pretty bleak. And making a truly game-changing smartphone is a tall order-especially for a company that wants to build them right here in the U.S.A.

But I kinda hope they succeed. I may not wear a six-inch smartphone on my forearm (nor even the four-inch mini model they hope to bring next), but I'd gladly fool around with a phone that could literally bounce back from a fall to the floor unscathed. [Indiegogo via CNet]