Video shows possible successors to Samsung's Galaxy Z Foldable line
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Right now, if you want to carry a smartphone that gives you the option of using a larger, tablet-sized display, your only option is to buy a foldable phone like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, Oppo Find N, Huawei Mate X2, and the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2. If the latest rumors are right, we could even be adding the Pixel Fold (or Notepad) to that list. All of these phones open along the horizontal axis to reveal a larger tablet-sized display.
If you've been a loyal reader for some time, you might remember that both Samsung and LG (before the latter unceremoniously exited the smartphone business) have worked on alternative ways to stretch a smartphone screen into a tablet-sized display. LG might have been the closest to releasing a "rollable" device by bringing the aptly named LG Rollable to the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
LG even released a teaser showing the Rollable in tablet form shrinking back to smartphone size. But the company gave up and shuttered its smartphone business before it could bring the LG Rollable to market. Last November, Samsung teased two different types of its Flex OLED panels, one being rollable and the other slidable. Both would accomplish the same thing: turning a smartphone screen into a larger tablet-sized display. The South Korean manufacturer has even put up a website for its Flex OLED initiative.
Twitter tipster Ice Universe (@UniverseIce) has disseminated a tweet that contains a video showing three new Flex OLED panels that we can only assume that Samsung is developing for use on smartphones and other devices. One is a tri-fold that folds inward twice, one is a slidable, and the other appears to be a game console.
interesting pic.twitter.com/k9ejHUGzr0
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) August 14, 2022
Samsung Display says at the bottom of the video that its "astonishing next-gen products include foldables that fold up into an "S" shape or fold twice inward with two hinges, folding laptops, and slidables expanded from both ends.
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It isn't clear when this was recorded or the context of the video. Having branded these as next-gen products, don't expect Samsung to release any device using these form factors any time soon. Still, it always is interesting to look at the future. Remember when foldables were the future? Now, they are the present. Someday, we might be able to say the same thing about the devices seen in the video.
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