News & Reviews:   flexible display

When Motorola re-introduced its Moto Razr last year, people who love clamshell phones like me were pretty excited. It's not a form factor you see often outside of Japan, but some manufacturers are working on them. After Motorola and Samsung, Xiaomi is the next that is allegedly working on a new foldable clamshell smartphone.

The cancellation of MWC this year meant that we didn't get the chance to see a lot of new things. But TCL is making up for lost opportunity with the reveal of dummy units for its latest concept devices. One of them is the phone with an extendable screen that we saw a few weeks back, while the other is a tri-fold device.

Samsung have forged ahead as the leader in flexible display devices with the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge and S6 edge+ but rumours now indicate that we could see a device with a flexible display that can be folded in January 2016. Following Samsung's previous flexible display timeline, 2016 and 2017 should be the year that such devices come to light. It isn't the first time such rumours have come out nor will it be the last but since it does follow the internal timeline document we expect it to be somewhat accurate. Nonetheless, do take this with a good dose of salt. No Malaysia release dates or pricing details but we expect it to be exorbitantly expensive based on previous pricing of the Galaxy Note Edge which was the first device with a bended curved display. 

LG is one of the few other major manufacturers to have come out with flexible displays such as those on the LG G Flex smartphone. According to a roadmap of it's flexible displays, we could soon see foldable and rollable displays in tablets, smartphones, cars and TVs in 2017. The roadmap also reveals that smartphones with bending or bendable displays (probably the LG G Flex 2) and smartwatches or other wearables are due in 2015. LG will be using P-OLED display technologies to create a plastic substrate for a more durable, thinner and lighter flexible display. No Malaysian release dates or pricing details were available yet, but hopefully LG increases their presence here in Malaysia a bit more before 2017 rolls around.

It seems Samsung and LG aren't the only ones to have flexible touchscreen technology as Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL) recently showed off an 8.7-inch Super AMOLED display that can be folded into three parts. Featuring a full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, the touchscreen can be bent up to a 2mm to 4mm radius and is durable up to 100000 times of being bent. SEL also showed off a smaller 5.9-inch flexible display but this one only offered 720p HD resolutions and is not a touchscreen. The company have not revealed when this flexible technology could come to tablets or smartphones of the future but it does seem to indicate that flexible display devices could be coming in 2015.

It isn't a secret that flexible paper thin screens exist, but the reality is that devices with such screens could be coming sooner than you think. Researchers at the Human Media Lab of Queen's University, Canada have proven this with the PaperFold device which is paper-thin, foldable, flexible, can be detached and reattached to other electrophoretic displays or touchscreens and function as a smartphone, tablet and notebook. While the displays on the screens are still black and white and not very high in resolution, they show off remarkable functionality. Check out the video in this article for a glimpse of the future.

A metal chassis and one of Samsung's flexible OLED YOUM displays are two of the most avidly rumoured about features every time an upcoming Samsung smartphone is set to appear. They came out for the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, so we're not surprised that rumours have appeared saying that the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 could get a 3-sided YOUM display. Apparently the rumour comes from a report about a comment made by an unnamed Samsung representative, which sounds fishy enough already. We'd love to be wrong about this but we think that the Galaxy Note 4 isn't going to change it's design language so drastically just to incorporate flexible displays. If anything, the Samsung YOUM displays are more likely to appear as a completely new product. Still, do take this rumour with a heavy pinch of salt and disbelief, at least you'll feel more surprised if it actually does come true.

Samsung is one of only 2 major makers of flexible displays in the world and has since dominated the smartphone world with it's various smartphone models. Following a roadmap image at one of their presentations, it appears that Samsung may come out with foldable smartphones from 2015. It also appears that more curved display devices are on the way as the road map notes that curved displays will range from 2013 to early 2014 and bended displays will follow after in 2014 to 2015. While Samsung did not elaborate on what it defines as bended or foldable, it does show an example of a bended display graphic which sort of rolls the display. We assume that if it is foldable, this means you can flatten it down so it forms a crease, making for a thinner device. Samsung also went on to show how such foldable display devices might work and even came up with an interesting foldable (or is it bended?) concept device video which appears to be nothing much more than a thin sheet of foldable plastic. Check out the pics and video for yourself in this article.

In line with their flexible displays, Samsung recently demoed their new flexible battery technology. Rather than create a bendable battery in the form of a cable Samsung are using a non-liquid electrolyte for their batteries which while being not a liquid still follows the shape of whatever object or case you put it into. This sort of battery in a pouch offers even more versatility as you can now have the battery in anything with some space. The other cool thing about it is that due to the nature of the material it cannot overheat and start a fire even under the most extreme conditions. No details on pricing or Malaysia release dates but we should see some models offering the new Samsung battery technology soon (or next year). 

LG has confirmed that they will start mass production of flexible displays for Q4 of 2013. In a newspaper report, the company said that they will be making OLED displays that support ultra-high definitions (like the curved 4K display LG showed off at CES 2013). These panels will be produced at their Paju factory in Korea.

"We will apply a 4.5th generation glass-cutting technology for the OLED flexible displays. Monthly capacity for the line was set as 12,000 sheets."