The LG Rollable phone makes an appearance at CES and we are intrigued

This story is part of CES, where our editors will present the latest news and the hottest gadgets from CES 2021 entirely virtual.

Kicking CES off on Monday with a bang, Korean tech giant LG teased its foldable phone during its morning press conference. The LG cell phone was shown for the first time with the LG Wing in September, but thanks to a video, we now have a clear frontal view of what the company has been working on behind the scenes, and we know its name: LG Rollable.

Previously, all we saw of the LG laptop was a poorly lit side view of what appeared to be a standard-sized phone that turned into a slim tablet. But in this latest clip, the phone is shown in all its glory, with the phone rolling smoothly out to reveal an expanded screen – just like its rollable TVs already do.

Two teasers were shown for the phone, one at the beginning of the press conference and one at the end. It was only in the final clip that we discovered the official name of the device. Unfortunately, the phone was not mentioned explicitly during the event, so there is still a lot that we don’t know about it – including when we can learn more about this enigma of a device.

LG has never shied away from experimenting with unusual phone concepts and putting them on the market. In 2013, when large phones were still called “phablets”, the company launched a giant phone with a curved display called the G Flex. Eight years later, screen technology has evolved significantly from rigid curves to fully flexible rollers.

This is not to say that LG is the first company to reveal to the world that it is experimenting with scrollable screen technology. TCL and Oppo have also sparked its efforts to harness technology – and we are sure that these three will not be alone. In the coming months, we are excited to see what other companies are experimenting with rollables, and whether they can make them attractive enough for us to adopt in favor of more conventional phone designs.