Flexible mobile phones have been around for years, but we’re yet to see a company bring one to market. Most of the big names in the mobile industry have come up with prototype designs, including LG, who recently confirmed plans to launch a bendy phone before the end of 2013.
Now LG’s Vice President of Mobile, Yoon Bu-hyun, has told of a phone that can be bent and twisted. Furthermore, screen quality won’t be sacrificed in order for the phone to be flexible – an OLED display will be used, which should provide excellent viewing angles, lots of brightness and a very vivid and colourful image.
The phone will launch in Q4 of 2013 – so sometime between October and December – although all other specifics are yet to be confirmed. Going by LG’s recent track history of products we would imagine the phone to run Google’s Android operating system and therefore become a part of the company’s Optimus range. An LG Optimus G2 is expected to launch this year as a successor to the impressive G1, and LG has already told us to expect “something unique”.
LG’s South Korean rival Samsung revealed a bendy phone concept at CES earlier in the year, beating LG to the punch. However, it seems that LG wants to cement plans to make the phone something you can buy as soon as possible, whereas Samsung only showed off an idea.
We can certainly expect the phone to be pricey, as all new concepts in the technology world are. OLED screen technology tends to be very expensive, and as a marker LG’s new OLED televisions retail for around £10,000. A mobile screen will obviously be on a much smaller scale, but add to that the fact that it will be flexible we can imagine a very high price tag.
To get an idea of how a bendy screen would work on a gadget, take a look at LG’s flexible e-ink displays from last year.