It seems we may be a big step closer to a flexible future as a report claims that Samsung is going ahead with production of its first bendable smartphones which could be launched as soon as 2017.
A source speaking to Bloomberg suggests that the two new mobile concepts will feature screen formats not currently available on the market – with both devices featuring a display model that “folds in half like a cosmetic compact.”
It’s thought that this idea will allow Samsung to make something the size of a tablet and have it fold down to the size of a pocketable smartphone while still allowing the screen to display and properly perform all its functions in either form. It does sound like a real “game-changer” – as it’s referred to in the source, and something we can’t really recall any of the other leaders of the mobile market having up their sleeve.
Of course there have been instances where flexible glass has been used in the construction of a smartphone. Take the LG Flex for example or, most famously and to greater market success, Samsung itself, which has incorporated a curved edge Super AMOLED screen as a signature feature – offering a unique option for buyers of its flagship Galaxy S models in recent years.
But never before has Samsung contorted the boundaries of what a screen to do to the extent being proposed here.
A fully bendable, foldable smartphone has been a pipedream for many years (remember the Youm concept in 2012?) and the company even proposed it would have a foldable phone out by late 2014. These flights of fancy are thought to have been hindered by the fact that when a piece of display material flexes to a certain point it will inevitably break. It seems perhaps this issue has now been overcome and the claims of Bloomberg’s report might in fact see light of day this time.