Samsung announces Infinity Flex Display for foldable smartphones

[Shawn Knight]

A hot potato: Samsung's new Infinity Flex Display represents the next milestone in the evolution of mobile display technology. It's impressive from an engineering standpoint, sure, and I'm probably in the minority here but I'm still not convinced that flexible screens have any business on a smartphone. It feels forced, is impractical and based on what's been shown thus far, sets smartphone design back by at least a full decade.

Samsung during the opening keynote of its 2018 developer conference on Wednesday announced its Infinity Flex Display and briefly showcased the technology on stage.

Justin Denison, SVP of mobile product marketing, shared a brief teaser video of the Infinity Flex Display before pulling a prototype handset out of his pocket. Conveniently, the lights dimmed so you really couldn’t get a good look at the device. He did unfold the device, however, and as expected, it transformed into a 7.3-inch tablet.

Denison said they “disguised the elements of the design” but added “there’s a device inside here and it’s stunning.” That’s good to hear because I wasn’t impressed with the chunky handset I saw on stage or the small size of the outer, cover display.

Denison talked briefly about the technology behind the Infinity Flex Display and how it had to be able to withstand being folded and unfolded repeatedly without degradation. Glen Murphy, head of Android UX at Google, said Android will officially support the foldable form factor on the software side.

We just announced support for foldables at #AndroidDevSummit, a new form factor coming next year from Android partners.

Android apps run seamlessly as the device folds, achieving this form factor's chief feature: screen continuity. pic.twitter.com/NAfOmCOY26

— Android Developers (@AndroidDev) November 7, 2018

Mass production is expected “in the coming months” and Denison even shared a roadmap with rollable and stretchable displays planned for the future.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/77305-samsung-announces-infinity-flex-display-foldable-smartphones.html

 

[poohbear]

Shawn Knight, you write you're in the minority thinking "flexible screens have no business on smartphones". U sound like an old man!!! 10 years ago MS thought smartphones were a fad and look how they completely missed out on that form factor! Personally, I'm quite excited by this! Yes the first version is gonna be an experiment and might be clunky, but if u think this is not the future of smart phones, ure in the wrong industry sir.

 

[G0DofPaiN]

If the flexible device also gets the battery technology to fully charge in 10 minutes it would sell like hotcakes.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Companies need to make a lot of phones this form factor. Otherwise we'll never know that the form factor sucks, we'll only be able to assume that.

 

[floor board]

Imagine if their TVs were like this... the possibilities

 

[Invizibleyez]

Wait, you said "sets smartphone design back by at least a full decade". What exactly has progressed with cellphones in the past 10 years? The newest iPhone and or Samsung looks only slightly different than it did 10 years ago. If this is a step backwards to go forward, I welcome it. Forward has been the same old thing for way too long.

 

[viperfl]

Cellphone technology has been stagnating far to long. Every new cellphone version created is really no different than the last. Of course new technology is always clunky at first but matures with time.

I don't believe this is a step backwards. I would welcome this new technology.

 

[Shawn Knight]

I wholeheartedly agree that mobile innovation has stalled and would like to see something new and exciting as much as the next person. Bendable, rollable and stretchable screens are neat advancements, I just don't think that smartphones are the right application for them. How does being able to roll a screen up meaningfully improve the user experience beyond the sheer novelty and awe factor of it?

Also, we're really discussing two different things: flexible screen tech and smartphones. Smartphones will only bend to the extent that everything else inside also bends. How would a rollable smartphone work without the hardware inside also being able to flex?

Hopefully companies like Samsung prove me wrong with use cases and form factors that we haven't even conceived but right now, I'm not seeing it.

 

[netman]

Shawn Knight, you write you're in the minority thinking "flexible screens have no business on smartphones". U sound like an old man!!! 10 years ago MS thought smartphones were a fad and look how they completely missed out on that form factor! Personally, I'm quite excited by this! Yes the first version is gonna be an experiment and might be clunky, but if u think this is not the future of smart phones, ure in the wrong industry sir.

Sort of like seeing glass half empty or half full....Shawn Way!

 

[Q Wales]

Can't wait. I wouldn't mind betting the next battle will be to see how many folds you can get on a pocket phone. Eventually some bright spark will finally utilise that flexi screen tech, which seems to have been around unused forever, where you can just pull out the screen like film from an old fashion camera. Then you'll be looking at screens 6" deep(phone hight) and as wide as you like.

 

[Invizibleyez]

How about a pen phone. Carry something the size of a pen, roll out the screen.