We’ve seen large displays, small displays, curved displays, modular displays and even flexible displays. But now, it seems Samsung wants to take it a step further by introducing a smartphone with a foldable display.
Yes, the future is now. Well, sort of.
Large screens are awesome for videos, games and even more mundane stuff like browsing and picture taking. The problem with large displays is that they’re very hard to carry around and operate especially for people with smaller hands.
Ideally, we’d want a smartphone that can be both small and portable but have an enormous display. Making smartphones thinner and lighter helps somewhat, but what if we could shrink the display size altogether?
Well, if these recent rumours are to be believed, it seems Samsung is working on exactly that with their purported Galaxy X handset set to go on display in 2017. The Galaxy X will be part of Samsung’s rumoured five flagships next year which will likely be the Galaxy S8, S8 edge, Galaxy Note 7 and Note 7 edge.
According to more rumours, the foldable Galaxy X will feature a 4K (3840×2160) panel that folds out like one of those three part velcro wallets — shrinking something that is about the size of a tablet to the size of a smartphone.
This would clearly be a big challenge for the South Korean electronics giant as they’re taking their flexible OLED panels to the next level. They will also need to come up with a much stronger material that can withstand the constant folding and unfolding than the plastic backplane they’re using on their flexible panels. The display is also said to use a diamond PenTile subpixel like they’re currently using with several Galaxy smartphones.
Either way, it will be interesting to see how (and if) they accomplish this feat and would probably mark a new chapter in the smartphone story. Until we see some concrete evidence, do keep in mind that these are merely rumours so take them with the appropriate amount of salt.
