Do you think foldable smartphones are intriguing? How about a device that you can roll?
LG has been investigating foldable and rollable smartphones for quite a while now. Meanwhile, rivals such as Samsung and Huawei are proving their best, experimenting with innovative materials and futuristic form factors. Here is what you should know.
LG Might Release a Rollable or Foldable Smartphone Next Year
According to a patent filing, LG has far more ambitious plans for the future. A report from Asia Time has hinted, too, at a concept for a device that is both foldable and rollable. But, the sketches offered are incredibly exciting.
It seems like part of the screen can fold up and then unfurl, extending the available display real estate while providing a laptop-style form factor. And it is known that the company has lots of experience with rollable devices, the LG OLED TV R9, for instance, presented at CES back in 2019. However, one look at LG’s rollable TV, and we can immediately understand that a similar concept couldn’t work for a smartphone, at least in the context of today’s possibilities.
In that case, the display would have to roll into a long box to house the base of the scroll, perhaps squeezed alongside other necessary components. This concept of a display that rolls out and folds up, expanding from a solid little box, seems to be more feasible. But how can anyone develop a screen both flexible enough to roll yet steady sufficient to fold at a proposed location?
Meanwhile, as LG tries to figure out how to develop such an ambitious project, its rival, Samsung, has quietly and quickly become the best at manufacturing foldables. The Galaxy Z Flip, for example, isn’t a perfect smartphone. Still, it’s truly a landmark achievement in providing a foldable that is well-polished and reliable enough to use every day.
