New prototypes of smartphones with rollable screens are presented. Technology is improving. The screens are visibly ready. But will the manufacturers take the plunge, in particular Samsung?
Reserved for a few wealthy technology enthusiasts, the LG roll-up Oled screen TV has projected us into a not so distant future made up of devices in modular formats according to needs and desires. Since then, on the smartphone market, folding screens have made a (very) small place with an identical philosophy. However, we kept in mind this sweet dream of one day seeing a smartphone expand as its screen unfolds. However, this is precisely what several teams of engineers are working on.
Samsung Display has just presented a prototype of this kind during a professional meeting. Ross Young, who runs this event and has worked closely with screen supply chains for 25 years, was able to attend this demonstration and post some visuals on his Twitter account, for our greatest pleasure. The prototype in question is a smartphone incorporating a 16:9 screen capable of unfolding vertically (upward) to reach 6.7 “diagonal on a 22:9 ratio.
Rollable demo from Samsung Display pic.twitter.com/bZxn4KYklM
—Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) May 10, 2022
But that’s not all. The manufacturer BOE has for its part presented another prototype called “multi-fold”. This time around, the smartphone is able to mechanically unroll sideways, horizontally. We have no more technical details to put in our mouths for the time being, but the only 20-second video published by Ross Young is enough to tickle our curiosity.
rollable BOE pic.twitter.com/zyuUNCyQpJ
—Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) May 11, 2022
Obviously, the objective of these concept-phones is to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology in a device as compact as a smartphone can be. As with smartphones with folding screens, the idea is to be able to enjoy more display space intermittently, with the hope that these phones will be thinner than those that fold in half. The technology exists, it remains for the manufacturers on the market to seize it in order to possibly offer it to us in future commercial products.
Remember that the Chinese Oppo had made an impression in 2021 with a concept of this kind, but its Oppo X smartphone, which we had been able to take in hand, has still not seen the light of day.