CES 2021: LG teases the ‘world’s first rollable smartphone’

LG has announced that it will launch the world’s first rollable smartphone this year, as it offered a preview of the device at CES 2021 with a five-second teaser video.

The clip shows a smartphone held in landscape orientation as the screen changes from an extended tablet-style form factor display to a more compact chassis.

The hybrid handset is said to be based on flexible organic light-emitting diode technology, which is said to be supplied by China’s BOE Technology Group, although the specifics of the technology remain unclear. Speaking at CES, the company said Nikkei Asia that the product would be officially released later this year:

“Our management wanted to show that this is a real product because there were a lot of rumors surrounding the roll-up phone,” said Ken Hong, an LG spokesperson. “As it will be released at ‌CES 2021‌, I can say that it will be launching this year.”

LG’s roll-up screen follows the moderate success of Samsung’s foldable smartphones and comes as LG’s phone business struggles financially due to stiff competition from Samsung, Huawei and Apple.

Apple has previously explored roll-up screens based on the company’s patents. In March 2020, a patent assigned to Apple appeared on the US Patent and Trademark Office that describes an “electronic device with flexible display structures.”

The patent details a flexible screen that can be wrapped around one or more internal roller mechanisms, allowing the screen to extend out of the frame. A rigid section remains to house printed circuit boards and other electronic components, but with the addition of the rollable display layers.

“Elongated bistable support members can run along the edges of the screen or can be overlapped by a central active area of ​​the screen to help stiffen and support the screen in its extended position,” explains the patent, which sees technology as adaptable to everything. from a smartphone to a smartwatch.

As with all Apple patents, there is no indication that Apple is planning to release such a device, but it’s interesting to see what kinds of future solutions Apple is considering as it seeks to innovate beyond current consumer-oriented technologies. .