It is fair to say that Samsung is not sitting on its laurels when it comes to innovative form factors. The company already has two types of folding phone – the Galaxy Z Fold 2, which opens on a large tablet, and the Galaxy Z Flip, which folds in half to be more compact. Now, the company has confirmed that it will experiment with less orthodox ways of placing more screens in a small space.
Korean website The Elec reports that Samsung Display has publicized its plans in the area of ”rollable and slidable”. The company’s senior vice president, Choi Kwon-young, reportedly said in the company’s fourth quarter conference call that Samsung Display will move forward with “small and medium screens this year”.
There are two important things to note here. First, the report does not define what scrollable or sliding means. Presumably, it refers to how the screen expands – whether it is rolled out, scrolled, or slid out – but you would imagine that the results would be very similar to that of the average consumer.
Second, and perhaps most importantly, you will notice that the report refers specifically to the Samsung monitor – and that part of the business has a lot of pies on its fingers. It is possible that the company’s experience with sliding / scrolling screens is limited to television sets, rather than being small enough to fit in your pocket.
It is also possible that the company is talking about manufacturing monitors for use by other companies, but in the area of phones this seems unlikely, given Samsung’s enthusiasm to be the first to come out of the traps with foldable devices.
With all of these caveats addressed, there are good reasons to think that Samsung is working on a rollable phone. Not only has the (possibly abandoned) LG handset sparked media interest, but a recently discovered patent shows that Samsung has been considering the practicalities of scrollable displays for at least a year.
In the unlikely event that neither LG nor Samsung provide a portable phone, all hope is not lost. TCL also has a rollable design in progress, which the company demonstrated at CES. No release date has been given, but with LG’s option reported at a cost of $ 2,359 (again, assuming it arrives), then TCL’s reputation for low-cost devices may be attractive to those on a limited budget.