Would you like to have a larger display in your pocket than you can fit there? Foldable phones are supposed to solve this problem. But what if you want something in between? What if you want to seamlessly adapt the display size to what you’re doing?
This is exactly what the Chinese multinational company Lenovo would like to offer users. At the Mobile Fair in Barcelona, it demonstrated two functional prototypes of the “rollable display”. Earlier, Lenovo said that it was working on this concept, but only now the journalists were able to shoot the new type of devices. “But they wouldn’t let us touch the devices,” Jon Porter pointed out, a reporter for The Verge. “And trust me I’ve tried.”
A phone with variable display size
A foldable display is no longer a surprising feature for a phone, but no one has yet taken the “rolling” concept to a production sample. However, the prototype of the Motorola mobile phone (Lenovo has owned this brand since 2014) shows how it could look in practice.
A plate with a display comes out of the mobile phone, increasing its size by approximately a quarter.
“I can turn a five-inch display into a six-and-a-half-inch display by double-tapping a button on the side of the phone,” explains Angelina Gomez, a product manager at Lenovo. “I want a small device, but sometimes I want to enjoy content on Netflix or YouTube or something.”
The user will probably also be able to set which applications he wants to use the entire display and for which he will only need three-quarters of the length. He will also be able to switch sizes at any time. Ejection is motorized and takes about two seconds.
Since the “excess” display wraps around the back of the phone, it can also serve as a preview for taking a selfie with the rear camera. The prototype also includes the possibility of playing funny animations so that children look into the lens while taking pictures.
It is not clear when this phone will hit the market. Lenovo didn’t even provide information about a possible price or how much bending (rolling) such a device will be tested for. For flexible variants, hundreds of thousands of bends are usually expected, but in the case of motorized extension, the demands could be less, since the bend is continuous and controlled in all phases.
Two screens on top of each other
Even more interesting is the scrollable display built into the laptop. At first glance, the closed prototype is indistinguishable from other small Lenovo laptops.
Prototype of a ThinkBook laptop with a scrollable display.
Inside, however, is a display that can – again by itself, motorized – increase its size. Attention, unpacking is quite slow, as you can see in the video at the beginning of this article. In total, it takes about ten seconds for the screen to slide out of its space under the keyboard.
The prototype laptop with the display in the rolled state has a display with a resolution of 2024 × 1604 pixels, which is a 4:3 format.
After unpacking, which takes an “infinite” ten seconds, a monitor with a resolution of 2024 × 2368 pixels is created. This is roughly the equivalent of two widescreen displays on top of each other. The aspect ratio of the rolled-out display is 8:9, i.e. twice 16:9.
“Carry a small laptop and work on a big one, that’s our motto,” product manager Tom Butler told the AP. “It instantly increases the space in which you can be productive and creative.”
A prototype laptop with a display in an unpacked state.
This is already the umpteenth attempt by Lenovo to add another screen to the laptop. In theory, anyone who likes to work on a large display or is used to working on multiple monitors should appreciate it. But for this concept to be successful, it will have to offer more than a portable external display. And, of course, a lot will also depend on the price, which even in this case the company does not want to anticipate.
Foldable displays are still finding their way
Bigger inside than outside. This is the essence of all folding devices. They offer more functions than their folded form seems at first glance. Since 2019, manufacturers have been trying to assemble mobile phone displays in this way as well. South Korean giant Samsung started it when it showed off a vision of the Galaxy Fold at MWC 2019, and other manufacturers have followed suit.
Several companies are already presenting foldable phones at this year’s trade fair in Barcelona:
OPPO Find N2 Flip foldable phone
Tecno Phantom V Fold foldable phone
Tecno Phantom V Fold foldable phone
Tecno Phantom V Fold foldable phone
OPPO Find N2 Flip foldable phone
Honor Magic VS foldable phone
“There are now fourth generations of these folding devices on the market, which is remarkable in itself,” CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood told the AP. “Millions of these devices are sold annually. I don’t know how much this segment can grow. We see that the new form is mainly interested in women who want a smaller phone with a foldable display.”
According to Wood, manufacturers are now experimenting with different ways to incorporate flexible displays into devices. This could bring new innovations to the field of smartphones, which in recent years have almost all looked more or less the same: large display, small bezels, rounded corners. News is more incremental and consumers have less reason to buy a new phone every two years.
