In context: Samsung unveiled a grand vision for the future of phone screens a while back. It teased the concept of foldable, rollable, and otherwise flexible displays. Some of those ideas have come to fruition (see the Galaxy Fold), whereas others are still in the works. We got to see some of those work-in-progress concepts today, thanks to a new slew of reveals from Samsung's Display division.
The most interesting of these reveals was arguably Samsung's in-development S-Foldable OLED panel, which can fold not once, but twice – it has two separate flex points set between three screen segments.
When fully folded up, the S-Fold display can work as a normal phone, but when extended to its full 7.2-inch length, you get something closer to a tablet.
It's a pretty cool idea, though it's difficult to say how practical or popular it would be. The Galaxy Fold wasn't exactly a best seller (and it probably wouldn't have been even if it was cheaper), so a device that effectively doubles down on the design might not do much better.
Samsung Display also showed off a Slidable OLED display, and a 17-inch foldable, tablet-sized panel. The latter seems to be using essentially the same technology as the Galaxy Fold, just scaled up.
The former has something a little more exotic under the hood, though – the screen slides out to the right, allowing the display to extend a couple inches. We're not quite sure how that one works, but it certainly looks unique and might be a bit more convenient than folding alternatives.
In any case, not many details are available about any of these OLED technologies for the time being. whereas the former eliminates folds altogether, replacing it with some sort of sliding rail for extending (or shrinking) the available screen space.
Masthead credit: Mariaprovector