CES 2021: LG teases ‘The world’s first rolling smartphone’

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

The clip features a smartphone held in landscape orientation as the display runs from a tablet-shaped extended form factor screen to a more compact chassis.

The hybrid receiver is said to be based on flexible organic light-emitting diode technology, which is said to be provided 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 will be officially launched later this year:

“Our management wanted to show that it is a real product, because there have been many rumors surrounding the mobile phone,” said Ken Hong, a spokesman for LG. “Since it will be launched at ‌CES 2021‌, I can say that it will be launched this year.”

LG’s scrollable display 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 explored rolling displays in the past, based on the company’s patents. In March 2020, an Apple patent appeared on the US Patent and Trademark Office describing an “electronic device with flexible display structures.”

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

“Long flip-flops can run along the edges of the display or can be overlapped by a central active area of ​​the display to help stiffen and support the display in its extended position,” explains the patent, which conceives the technology as adaptable to any from a smartphone to a smartwatch.

As with all Apple patents, there is no indication that Apple intends to bring such a device to market, but it is interesting to see what kind of future solutions Apple is pursuing as it tries to innovate beyond current technologies. consumers.