Tag Archives: rollable

Lenovo rollable phone and laptop at MWC 2023 paint an alternate future of flexibility

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Foldable phones might be starting to become a little bit more common, but they aren’t the only way to get a larger screen without increasing the phone’s size. Due to their relative simplicity and fewer moving parts, however, they are easier to develop and manufacture, at least compared to other alternatives. That doesn’t mean foldable displays are the best, though, just that they’ve had a long time stewing in labs and factories. Rollable screens are slowly catching up, especially in the TV and signage space, because of their space-saving feat. That is still something not completely feasible for mobile devices, but at MWC 2023, Lenovo is showing off not one but two such concepts that could help change the way we use smartphones and laptops, hopefully for the better.

Designer: Lenovo

Rollable Phone Concept

A foldable phone technically only needs strong and reliable hinges, while any device with a rollable screen will need some form of motor, which increases the likelihood of something breaking over time. While that might sound like a major disadvantage, the deforming screen has the advantage of being able to hide portions of the screen that don’t need to be used, unlike a foldable display that is only an either-or arrangement. There have been quite a number of ideas on how to put this into practice, and Lenovo is now publicly revealing two of the concepts that it has been developing for some time now.

We’ve actually seen some rollable phone prototypes in the past few years, including one from LG that almost made it to the market. Lenovo puts a unique spin on this concept by having part of the screen hidden at the back of the phone when it’s in its compact 5-inch form. A double press of the side button raises the top of the phone, rolling the screen to extend to its full 6.1 inches. Expanding and shrinking the phone can be done manually with that side button, but it can also be made to roll automatically depending on the app being used.

When in its smaller configuration, the small section of the screen on the back can be used as a second viewfinder, showing the camera’s preview or animations to catch kids’ attention when taking photos. Interestingly, the screen also rolls down slightly to reveal the front-facing camera at the top, hiding underneath the display. The prototype phone weighs around 310g, which is considerably heavier than most phones today and has a middling 3,000mAh battery. That said, it’s also still in its early stages, and there’s definitely a lot of room for improvement in other aspects.

Rollable Laptop Concept

Lenovo is, of course, primarily a PC manufacturer, so it’s no surprise that it also has a rollable laptop prototype to show off. Foldable laptops have only started to become available to consumers, and these early models still have a lot of room to grow. A laptop with a rollable screen, however, would have a very different form factor and use case, and it’s all for helping people be more productive, especially when dealing with long documents or scrolling Web pages.

This laptop prototype starts with a traditional 12.7-inch screen that grows to 15 inches when the rest of the display rolls out from underneath the keyboard. In this form, the focus is simply providing more screen real estate to fit more content rather than changing the device’s form significantly. That may sound a bit limiting, but it is also more conventional and easier to understand for most people who really just want a larger screen without a large laptop.

Lenovo says that the prototype’s rollable panel has the same durability as the ThinkPad X1 Fold, which means it has been tested for 20,000 to 30,000 cycles of rolling up and down. The laptop is rather thick at 17.9mm, but like the rollable phone, it is still in its infancy as an R&D device. There is no promise that it will become a product you’ll be able to buy, but it’s definitely reassuring that the world’s biggest PC maker continues to innovate and challenge conventions to push the envelope of computing.

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TECNO Phantom Vision V concept phone folds, rolls, and has plenty of screens

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Although there is still plenty of doubt and hesitation surrounding foldable phones, especially due to their prices, there is no shortage of vendors trying to get into the game nonetheless. It isn’t just foldables either, with some companies doing research and tests on phones with rollable screens as well. This latter category has still to make any formal entry into the mobile market, but there has definitely been plenty of ideas on how such a rollable phone should work. Young brand TECNO, which has been showing off a few bold concepts recently, has also thrown in its two cents, demonstrating a concept of a phone whose screen both folds and rolls yet still has two additional displays for good measure.

Designer: TECNO

Foldable phones try to solve the puzzle of screen size and portability. While many people wouldn’t mind having a large display they can view more content on, they do mind not being able to easily keep it in their pockets or small bags. Foldable phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the OPPO Find N2 offer a small phone-sized device that has a tablet-sized display, but that display is still no match for something like an iPad, at least not in size.

One alternative solution that has been proposed is to combine both foldable and rollable technologies to truly deliver that “tablet in your pocket” experience. That’s precisely what the TECNO Phantom Vision V brings to the table, at least in concept. Just like the aforementioned foldables, the devices opens to reveal the flexible display inside, but it still has one trick up its sleeve. The left side of the device expands further, rolling out additional screen real estate that would be equivalent to a 10.1-inch tablet with a more normal rectangular aspect ratio.

An additional detail that makes the Phantom Vision V a bit more interesting is another small display below the camera array on its back. This mimics the cover display of flip-type clamshell foldables that offer a more restricted set of functionality, mostly for notifications and quick actions. It’s not hard to imagine it’d also be used for taking selfies using the more powerful rear cameras.

It isn’t exactly clear from the video and images if the TECNO Phantom Vision V has a more traditional cover display on the opposite side, allowing the device to be used like a regular phone when folded close. There’s a possibility that the rollable side of the screen would also be used on that external part, which would save up on the components and build costs. That does mean that a flexible part of the screen will be exposed on the outside, which could raise concerns about durability. Given the non-trivial design, it will probably take some time before it even becomes reality, and TECNO isn’t saying anything about its prospective timeline to take the Phantom Vision V into production.

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LG Rollable phone hands-on video shows the future that we could have had

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Samsung might be crazy about foldable phones and is trying to make them mainstream, but these aren’t the only futuristic designs that could change the way we use smartphones forever. In some ways, it might actually be the less practical and less economical option, considering all the costs and compromises that had to be made to make it work well. Another option that phone manufacturers have been looking into is a phone that expands its display by rolling out part of the screen. LG was one of those dreamers and was on the verge of finally making it happen when it sadly had to close up its mobile shop. While the LG Rollable will no longer be, new information and videos show how this design could have offered a better way to have a phone and a tablet in one.

Designer: LG

To be fair, there is no clear winner yet among the different designs of these “morphing” smartphones. Foldables are currently leading the race, but it might only be a matter of time before rollables start rolling out. Despite being relatively older, foldable designs still have a lot of growing up to do. For example, one design requires having a second on the outside to make the phone even usable when folded. There is also still plenty of room to improve the hinge in order to reduce creasing. There’s also the fact that the flexible panel used is still more fragile than the regular displays on regular phones.

As this new hands-on video shows, the LG Rollable almost fixes most of those concerns. When rolled up, it is pretty much just a regular phone in a regular size that happens to have a softer display on the back. When rolled out, however, the 6.8-inch phone becomes a 7.4-inch tablet that, while smaller in size, could easily replace “mini” tablets in terms of use.

That’s the same spiel that phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold series make, but a rollable design has a few advantages. One of the biggest is that the “main” part of the display doesn’t need to be flexible and fragile and can be as rigid as typical smartphone screens. Only the area that actually bends and rolls has to be flexible. This makes the phone easily usable in its rolled-up form while also minimizing the potential for damage.

As a first-gen device, the LG Rollable does still have a few flaws. The creases aren’t completely gone, and there are actually more than one of them this time. There’s also an audible sound when the motors roll the side of the phone to shrink or expand the display. These imperfections could be solved by iterating over the design and the technology, though that will no longer be possible in LG’s case.

It is definitely a tragedy that LG shut down its mobile business, especially before it had the chance to bring the LG Rollable to the market. There are, of course, other brands that will try to pick up where it left off to prove the feasibility of a rollable design. Perhaps those would have already addressed the flaws of what would have been the market’s first rollable phone and would deliver something that is a bit closer to the ideal form-changing phone.

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This transparent rollable TV divides your living space and unifies your family

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Rollable TVs are coming. It’s really only a matter of time before they become the next big thing after curved TVs and super slim panels. The idea for them might be to simply save space or remove distractions when the TV is not in use. That also leaves wasted opportunity, however, especially for the base that takes up space on a shelf or edge of a wall. In anticipation of this next weave of TVs, there have been some ideas on how to better take advantage of this new technology in the home of the future. One such idea pushes the TV from the edges to the center of the living room, creating something that visually divides the space but also serves as a focal point for people to gather around.

Designer: Kurz Kurz Design

There are plenty of reasons for a rollable TV to exist, but few of them can really be considered practical or essential. It definitely gives someone plenty to brag about, but its novelty will eventually wear off. And just like a regular TV, its usefulness ends when you turn it off, or in this case, when it rolls back into its house. That house is still there, taking up space, and it is begging to be used in some other fashion.

One potential use case is to have it act as a speaker since it will most likely be a soundbar already anyway. This Skyline concept for speaker manufacturer vifa, however, extends that even further by making the transparent screen peek just a little bit out of its box. This way, part of the screen can still be used to display something and, given today’s display technologies, use considerably less power than when the screen is enabled in its entirety.

In this “descended” or “risen” mode, the screen can be used to show calming fire or maybe an aquarium. The transparent display, which is no longer science fiction today, makes an excellent medium to show this kind of fake content. You can also use it to display a night sky or flowers, though those would look less convincing in that position. And, of course, you can also show family photos, calendars, or today’s weather, turning it into a smart display for everyone to see.

This kind of functionality actually makes the Skyline an excellent centerpiece in any spacious area of the house or, alternatively, a divider for those spaces. The concept includes a Hi-Fi speaker inside the large cabinet box, with fine fabric covers that make the piece stand out even if the screen is fully retracted. The only problem is that the display will be facing only in one direction, so it’s best not to show things that would have to be read in a particular direction also, like text.

The Skyline transparent rollable TV concept rethinks the purpose of this upcoming breed of TVs and flips the idea on its head. Instead of a TV that rolls down into a smart display of sorts, it is a divider that can become a TV when needed. This transforms what would normally be a piece of equipment into a piece of furniture, one that can change the way people live and interact in that space.

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This rollable display is a concept Samsung should take note of

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If you are putting a rollable screen device in your home, you might as well pick one that really stands out even when not in use.

Given how much they’ve been popping up in exhibits and trade shows, it’s probably inevitable that the next trend in home electronics would be rollable TVs and displays. It is, after all, one way to save space without sacrificing the benefits of traditional panels the way home projectors do. It’s also a great bragging right for owning an advanced piece of technology and an effective conversation starter at parties. Not everyone, however, might want a full-blown giant rollable panel, and there will be a market for things that sit in-between rollable TV and a rollable phone or tablet. These devices could take the place of speakers, video phones, and even clocks around the house, and they don’t have to stop working even when they’re rolled down, like how most rollable TVs would.

Designers: Cho Sunghwan, Lee Sooyeol, Park Youngeun, Lee Yewon, Kim Jeonghyun (Unichest)

Like any new technology being marketed to consumers, often at very high prices, there are many questions about the purpose and place of such fancy new devices in our lives. Outside of the cool factor, rollable TVs would allow homeowners to save up on space or remove the TV from sight while not using it. One problem with these rollable screens, at least the first-generation designs, is that they are completely out of sight when rolled inside, making them completely useless in that dormant state.

This Samsung rollable display concept, in contrast, has something like a middle ground, a third state where it’s rolled down but still useful. The screen doesn’t completely retract inside the housing, leaving a section of the display exposed. This area can be used to display information like the time, weather, music controls, and more. Given today’s display technologies, this mode could use up less power than when the full display is in use, allowing the device to still offer some functionality even in a limited form.

Part of what makes that function work is the unnamed device’s asymmetric design. Rather than a box or cylinder that houses the rolled screen, it has more of an arched shape that has part of its top chopped off. Ironically, this design does get in the way when the full screen is extended since a part of the display will always be occluded. It will require a custom user interface that’s slightly different from the Android-based UI shown in the concept.

This rollable display concept was made for Samsung back in 2019, but recent events seem to have shelved plans, or the design didn’t get the company’s approval. It definitely requires a bit more work to pull off compared to a more straightforward rollable TV, but it also offers Samsung the opportunity to differentiate and make an impact. It could be what Samsung needs right now, especially with LG dominating the rollable news and the designer TV scene these days.

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Samsung Display teases a future filled with foldable and slidable devices

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We are so dependent on screens and displays these days, even just for looking at content. Most of the things we need to see every day are often displayed on computer monitors, TVs, and our phones. With more content and more data coming into our lives, it’s almost like we can’t have enough screens around us. In the somewhat distant future, every surface might indeed have a display, an interactive display even, but there are still plenty of technological and psychological hurdles before we get there. In the meantime, Samsung is more than happy to fill our world today with screens that can fold, roll, or even slide in order to give us as much display real estate as we need without forcing us to carry large backpacks or briefcases just to fit a 12-inch tablet.

Designer: Samsung

It isn’t time yet for a new foldable phone, but it’s Display Week 2022 in sunny San Jose, California, and Samsung isn’t going to miss out on the opportunity to show off what it has been cooking behind closed doors. Then again, some of these aren’t particularly new to our eyes, given how they’ve been prefigured by patents and even revealed by Samsung a few months ago. And given how these are already on display for the public to see, they’re more likely to arrive in the next few years rather than the next decades.

Fold it Your Way

Foldable phones are no longer alien to us now, but they’re still novel enough to be seen with some suspicion and apprehension. As marvelous as these may be from an engineering point of view, we’ve barely scratched the surface. Earlier this year, Samsung showed off its Flex G and Flex S foldable screens in action, and this week it’s reminding everyone who will listen to what these flexible displays can offer, presuming they actually become products.

The Flex G, for example, can either be a large screen that folds down twice into a more bag-friendly form, or it could be a makeshift laptop, with one-third of the screen as the keyboard and the other two-thirds for the display. The Flex S, on the other hand, can fold in opposite directions, forming a Z or S shape, and it’s easy enough to imagine it as a phone that transforms into a true tablet or vice versa. Both designs have been spotted before, both in patents and in prototypes, but Samsung might be more confident now to move forward and bring these displays to commercial products.

Let it Slide

The newest member of its gallery, however, is its “slidable” screens. Technically a combination of a sliding mechanism and a rollable display, this technology allows a device to expand its screen space without drastically changing the form of the device. A phone, for example, can remain a phone while its top slide out to show a bit more content. Given how tall smartphones are these days, that’s not exactly a big leap in form factors.

Similarly, an 8.1-inch tablet that suddenly has its sides slide out to expand to a 12.4-inch screen won’t drastically change the way you use the device. You just have more space for content or possibly more apps side-by-side. This kind of shape-shifting device might be a bit more approachable to consumers compared to foldables since it doesn’t require them to switch between modes or mindsets. Whether these are more robust than folding screens, however, remains to be seen.

For the Rest of Us

Truth be told, only a small fraction of today’s smartphone-using population has embraced foldables. There are a variety of reasons to hold off from those, with durability and price being the strongest deterrents. Until Samsung and other manufacturers have sufficiently addressed those concerns, foldables, rollables, slidables, and other -able displays will remain novelties and luxuries that could eventually die off as fads.

Of course, Samsung hasn’t completely forgotten about common people and has a few of its more normal but more usable innovations also on display, no pun intended. Amusingly, its latest QD-Display technology also stands as a testament to how technology, marketing, and even design go back and forth like a pendulum. The display market swings between LCD and OLED technologies every so often, sometimes with different marketing names and tweaks like MicroLED and Quantum Dots, in an attempt to get buyers’ attention and money. Samsung’s QD-Display TVs and monitors are just about to roll out to the public, so we’ll see soon enough what that buzz is all about.

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Samsung’s future vision is filled with screens that fold and bend

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We’ll be seeing displays everywhere in the future, but some of them might be more than meets the eye.

We are already living in a screen-centric world. We do our work on computers, get our entertainment from TVs, and connect with other people through our smartphones. Even activities like reading books, listening to music, and staying healthy have become connected with devices like eBook readers, portable media players, and smartwatches. It probably won’t be a surprise if we one day wake up to a world filled with screens left and right, but Samsung is working to make those displays more interesting and, more importantly, more eco-friendly.

Designer: Samsung Display

Samsung is perhaps best known around the world for its smartphones and its TVs, and the company has been pushing the boundaries of its display technology for those consumer tech products over the past years. The most famous and most recent examples are perhaps the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, currently considered the standard for foldable phones. Unsurprisingly, the company won’t be stopping there and will be bending and folding every display it can for almost any device.

On the mobile device side, Samsung showed off what it calls “Flex G” and “Flex S” displays that would allow an even bigger, tablet-sized screen to fold down to the size of a smartphone. Samsung will also be targeting laptops with its “Flex Note” screen, where a 17.3-inch display can fold in the middle to form a laptop with two 13-inch screens. The goal of these foldable displays, aside from boasting of the company’s prowess, is to increase people’s mobility without hampering their productivity, letting them bring along their work and entertainment anywhere.

You might have actually seen these before if you’ve been keeping tabs on unique and interesting display devices in the past years, but Samsung also brought something completely new to CES 2022. It showed off a smart speaker that seemed to have a cylindrical screen wrapped around it. But at the tap of a button on a paired smartphone, that screen unfurls and turns into a regular flat-screen panel, turning the smart speaker into a smart TV.

With LG’s vision of transparent screens and Samsung’s future shape-changing displays, we can probably expect our world to soon be littered with these bright surfaces in whatever form they may come in. That, however, might also mean an overall increase in power usage and carbon footprint, something that Samsung is thankfully aware of. Part of the company’s big spiel this year is on sustainability through its entire pipeline, from production to packaging.

For example, it is pushing its Eco2 OLED technology that reduces power consumption by removing unnecessary components. It recently also revealed a remote control that charges via Wi-Fi waves instead of electricity. With these, Samsung is trying to promise a future that is not only all about displays but, hopefully, also green.

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This rollable phablet brings the big screen experience to your pocket without any excessive bulk!

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A big rollable screen smartphone/tablet (a phablet to be precise) that’s designed to be the style statement in your pocket without the bulky form factor associated with big-screen mobile devices.

After foldables, the next revolutionary upscaling to the contemporary form factor of smartphones and tablets is going to be the rollable design. The Scroll bendable roll-out phablet designed by Compal Electronics is a perfect example of how smartphones will be an even more of an extension of our personality. The rollable device takes a cue from the hotshot mobile device manufacturers who have already fascinated us with their rollable phone concept designs. The likes of LG, Samsung, TLC and OPPO who are looking beyond the avenue to make scroll-like mobile devices mainstream.

Compal’s rollable phone (or should I say tablet) draws inspiration from the ancient papyrus rolls, enhancing the in-hand experience with readability. The upmarket device does this by enhancing the inherent benefits of the flexible display. Scroll comes with a 10-inch bendable screen that rolls out with the push of a button and retracts back into the opulent tube when not required. The amount of screen real estate that you require (up to 10-inches) is completely at the user’s discretion. A perfect way to carry the digital world in your pocket or bag in style. The company envisions this concept to radically reduce the packaging required, due to this compact shape and design.

Scroll has a secondary display on the outside to beam important notifications, display the interface of media players, or alert the user of incoming calls. The rollable device is targeted for the high-end market since it comes in a plush casing and leather finish. The front-facing camera is placed on the upper edge of this casing so that the user can click selfies. The rear-facing shooter is positioned on the opposite end of the casing, although no specifications of either camera are mentioned by the designer.

Designer: Compal Electronics

This paper cylinder is a rollable speaker that delivers surround sound!

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When we talk of electronics the trend is to shrink down the size of already existing technology while making it better in terms of usability. The same is true for audio equipment and believe it or not a newly developed iteration of speakers by the scientists at Germany’s Chemnitz University’s Print and Media Technology institute will catch your attention beyond comprehension. No more than a roll of paper that can be tailored into circular rings to encapsulate the listener in immersive audio, the research is backed by years of hard work and determination to achieve this form factor.

The ultimate goal is to design low-cost entertainment systems for modern interiors that embrace anything that’s highly functional and minimal in its look. So, a future where your music system will merely be a thin sheet of paper that can be placed anywhere on the walls or ceiling is more than a feasible possibility. The team of researchers headed by Prof. Dr. Arved C. Hübler has been working to improve the sonorous paper loudspeakers by Chemnitz which produce sound by displacing air to create a vibration. Hence, came into existence the roll-to-roll printed speaker paper, a.k.a. T-Paper which is more economical to produce – virtually in a roll form. According to project manager Georg C. Schmidt, the newly developed technology allows them to laminate the electronics for better feasibility in practical use. “In our T-Ring prototype, an almost four-meter-long track with 56 individual loudspeakers was connected to form seven segments and shaped into a circle, making a 360° surround sound installation possible,” says Schmidt.

This means that in the near future we could see the technology being implemented in trade shows, museums, or the advertising industry. The T-Ring that the team has developed for now is nothing but 90 percent conventional paper with electronics sandwiched to generate sound that surrounds the listener for an expanded soundscape for realism. The possibilities with this technology are endless and in the coming years, we could see home entertainment systems embedded into the home décor objects for a seamless design and superior audio experience at a very low-cost thanks to the developments by Print and Media Technology institute.

Designer: Chemnitz University of Technology (Visuals: TU Chemnitz/Jacob Müller)

Presenting the Best of CES 2021 winners!

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As Wednesday draws to a close, so does a grand social experiment: the first-ever online-only CES. In the end, the experience was invariably different. We particularly missed being able to wander The Sands and have learn about smaller, up-and-coming s...