The next step: smartphones with rollable screens
We try to stay away from useless imagery, such as ‘launching’ a service or ‘rolling out’ an update. Launching is done with rockets and rolling out is of course done with carpet. But rolling out a smartphone, that could become a real possibility in the near future. Because there are now three manufacturers who have shown a concept and perhaps even more companies are working on it.
This is, after the foldable smartphone, the second step towards new forms for smartphones. The smartphone with a roll-out or roll-up screen has a hidden piece of screen in the housing that becomes visible when the screen is rolled out. As a result, you can suddenly turn a screen into a larger screen if necessary.
Concepts of extendable smartphones
To see what problem this solves, we can easily go back to the most famous telephone presentation to date: that of the first iPhone in 2007. Apple foreman then tried to explain what the then new iPhone was a solution for. The problem, he argued, was in the bottom half of smartphone designs at the time.
Because, he argued, the buttons that are there are fixed and cannot adapt to apps. But every app wants a slightly different interface with different buttons. The solution was a phone with a ‘gigantic’ 3.5″ screen.
Now every smartphone has a large touchscreen, but another problem remains: the screen ratio. Want to scroll through your Twitter feed or Facebook posts? Then the current smartphone screens from 19:9 to 21:9 are fine. But when you start watching video, you often see black bars, because a lot of video material is 16:9 or 18:9. Want to type a long message or read a long text? Then you will benefit more from a wider screen of, for example, 4:3.
In short: not only does every app want a slightly different interface, but every type of app also benefits from a slightly different screen ratio.
The current foldable telephones only offer a partial solution; the point of a fold is that it allows two screen sizes and screen ratios. Take Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold2; it has an extremely long 25:9 screen on the outside and a 5:4 screen on the inside. So if you want to watch a 16:9 video, you can choose a version with large black bars on the side or a version with large black bars at the top and bottom.
What is the solution is a screen with an adjustable aspect ratio. Then you can, within certain limits, determine the screen ratio yourself. Or, even more fun, let the software determine the aspect ratio.
How it works
A number of manufacturers have shown concepts of this technique. Oppo has demoed one, TCL – who you may know from the Alcatel brand – has shown off several and LG has shown a teaser of such a phone.
The implementation between that of Oppo and TCL differs. Let’s start with Oppo; who presented the concept at his Inno Day 2020 earlier this week.
The phone has a 6.7″ screen that can roll out to a 7.4″ screen on the right side. That sounds like a small difference, but it isn’t. The screen has almost half the surface after rolling out. The screen goes from 15.5x7cm to 15.5×10.6cm, or from 108 square centimeters to 164 square centimeters.
That happens with something that Oppo calls a ‘roll motor’. Activation can be done by swiping on the right side. Then it goes from the minimum width to the maximum width and back. Furthermore, an engine allows the software to choose a ratio itself. As an example, Oppo mentions that you watch a 16:9 video at 16:9, after which the screen slides out a bit to quickly show a notification.
The portion of the screen that extends is rolled up inside the case; that roll has a diameter of 6.8mm. As a result, it is not folded and that should mean that no fold is visible.
The whole system is reinforced with a coating behind the screen and a metal system that interlocks. The system is of course possible by using a flexible OLED screen with a plastic substrate, as is usual with foldable smartphones.
The prototype that TCL showed in March works much the same way. The TCL version has no engine. By pulling on the right side, the screen slides over the side, as shown in this gif . This makes it possible to make the screen area approximately twice as large. Fewer details are known of the TCL model.
The least known is that of LG – but its release is perhaps the closest. The phone is presumably called Rollable and LG showed a glimpse at the end of the presentation of the Wing smartphone. LG has of course already shown a rollable TV. The rollable smartphone should appear next year.
In addition, there are more rumors. Market leader Samsung is also said to be working on such a model . That is obvious: Samsung makes flexible OLED panels that are necessary for such phones and jumps on every trend early to consolidate market leadership.
Why you should be able to extend smartphones
In practice, this is the case with the Oppo X 2021, for example. If you use it ‘normally’, it has a 6.7″ screen with a 20:9 ratio. You can see a 16:9 video on a diagonal of 5.6″. But with the X 2021, the screen can be pulled out a bit for a 16:9 ratio, so you watch video at 7″.
| Calculation example | Normal diagonal | At 16:9 video |
| Rollable phone | 6.7″, 108cm², 20:9 | 7.0″, 135cm² |
| Regular telephone | 6.7:, 108cm², 20:9 | 5.6″, 86.4cm² |
The area for watching video will then increase by almost 56 percent. That’s a huge difference when watching videos – and you don’t have to deal with black borders as a bonus. A huge advantage for those who use their phone a lot to watch videos.
In addition, there are other, obvious reasons for wanting to make such a phone that have nothing to do with technology. Brands such as Oppo and TCL want to be seen as innovative and with new shapes for smartphones, these Chinese companies are getting the necessary attention. That can boost sales of all models from those manufacturers, because of the brand recognition and marketing power emanating from such models.
Moreover, apart from Samsung, the manufacturers who are working on it are not coincidentally the manufacturers who have missed the boat with foldable smartphones. Samsung, Huawei, Royole and Motorola have released several foldable models so far. That’s having some success, but it’s a small portion of the smartphone market . The foldable smartphones have also shown what you should pay attention to when producing such a phone. Because the release of foldable smartphones went anything but smoothly .
Conclusion
It is now a bit of speculation when these phones will come out. LG seems to be aiming for next spring and Samsung would also like to try something next year. The rollable smartphone is really the next logical step after the foldable smartphone and can really add something.
There are also many question marks. How sturdy is the construction? Can the housing be made water resistant? Can a phone properly charge wirelessly with a screen that may be in front of the coil? What about the durability of such phones?
In addition, there are questions about its shape and function, such as whether a motor is needed, whether the screen ratio should automatically adjust itself per app or application, and whether phones become much larger or thicker from this mechanism. These are all questions that will undoubtedly receive an answer as soon as manufacturers start ehhh… rolling out this new type of smartphone.