You need to see these 6 impressive screen prototypes from Samsung
At CES 2024, Samsung Display is exhibiting some interesting prototypes, mainly around folding and extendable smartphones.
Samsung Flex In & Out // Source: Frandroid
CES 2024 is always an opportunity for certain brands to showcase their technical know-how. Samsung is no exception. And while the consumer branch of the Korean giant highlighted a transparent Micro-LED panel, the engineers from the Samsung Display subsidiary, specialist in screen design, also had great things to show.
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Here are some prototypes worth a look.
Flex Lip
The Flex Liple takes the form of a smartphone similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 5. Forget the external screen, however. Here, to look at the notifications, you can take a look at the upper part of the internal screen which wraps over the upper edge of the device.
Samsung Flex Liple // Source: Frandroid
This forms a thin display area where one can check incoming notifications.
Samsung Flex Liple // Source: Frandroid
People who find the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s external screen too intrusive might like this fairly simple solution.
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However, it’s difficult to imagine Samsung making some sort of step backwards by getting rid of the external screen, especially since the latter allows you to do many more things than just check notifications.
Flex In & Out
The Samsung Display teams have also imagined a Flip format smartphone capable of folding inwards (nothing unusual), but also outwards.
Samsung Flex In & Out
Hence its rather evocative name “Flex In & Out“.
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Here, the goal is not really to explore use cases where such a design would be really practical. It is rather a question of promoting the desire to constantly innovate on the hinge of folding smartphones.
Flex Note
The Samsung Flex Note is actually a huge 17.3-inch tablet. However, this can bend on a central axis.
We then end up with a laptop PC since the device understands when it must split the display in two to display the content at the top and the controls at the bottom.
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In laptop mode, we pass an equivalence of 12.4 inches for the diagonal.
Flex Hybrid
The Flex Hybrid prototype takes the form of a folding smartphone similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 5. However, in addition to being folding, the internal panel is also extendable. It is therefore possible to open and close the device without problem, but also to enlarge the size of the screen a little by unrolling it.
To do this, you have to pull a little to the side. This significantly changes the display ratio, but this idea could be practical in game for example.
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Note that enlarging the internal screen is also possible when the smartphone is folded. This Flex Hybrid concept is reminiscent of the TCL Fold N’ Rock.
Samsung Flex Hybrid // Source: Frandroid
Note that this extendable screen is made possible by the fact that the panel is partly rolled up in a portion of the device. So, when you don’t need it, the screen in question can be stored away without altering the design of the product.
Flex Note Extendable
The Flex Note Expandable is a sort of Flex Hybrid placed in the other direction. So here, we are entitled to a sort of small laptop computer.
And if you want to have access to more displayed content, just pull on the upper edge.
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Oled Earbuds Case
This prototype does not directly concern smartphones. Samsung Display had fun covering wireless earphone charging boxes with an Oled screen.
Samsung Oled Earbuds Case // Source: Frandroid
And frankly, it’s quite successful with small animations and some information such as the remaining battery level.
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Prototypes above all
Remember that Samsung Display is not intended to sell finished products to individuals. Instead, the company is content to show off everything it can do and let customers decide what they want. To put it another way, seeing this type of prototype in no way confirms that Samsung plans to use this type of design in a product intended for commerce.
Our journalist Omar Belkaab is present at CES 2024 in Las Vegas as part of a trip organized by the CTA, the organization which supervises the show.
