Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I think they need to get their words right. Nothing is being folded. It is being bent! Case in point, do yo fold your sheets or do you bend them?

Definition of fold. 1 : a part doubled or laid over another part : pleat. 2 : something that is folded together or that enfolds. 3 a : a bend or flexure produced in rock by forces operative after the depositing or consolidation of the rock. b chiefly British : an undulation in the landscape.

1. bendable - capable of being bent or flexed or twisted without breaking; "a flexible wire"; "a pliant young tree" waxy, pliable, pliant. flexile, flexible - able to flex; able to bend easily; "slim flexible birches"

True, I'd like to see a fully bendable screen, as if it's a piece of paper where you can bend it diagonally. Not sure how batteries will work with that though
 
How easy will this phone be to break when folding. The should be a limit to prevent excessive bending but a little to much and your display is toast.

That’s exactly what I was thinking. After folding and unfolding x number of times, I can see this cracking and poof goes the fold-a-phone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ErikGrim
Fantastic, although I’ve read this for a while now and still we haven’t seen anything..

Dread to think of the cost but it’s a start in the right direction. Give it five years and they’ll all be fold up devices.
 
What problem does this solve, specifically?
[doublepost=1536098929][/doublepost]
why are iphones more expensive than ipad pros btw?
In tech, smaller can be more expensive because shrinking all that down into a small form factor requires a lot of engineering.
 
How easy will this phone be to break when folding. The should be a limit to prevent excessive bending but a little to much and your display is toast.

I’m fairly sure they’ve worked that out....

Foldable displays have been in development for years now. It’s the next stage in tech which Apple will follow on and never lead.
 
I wouldn’t mind eventually seeing something that wraps around my wrist - a watch/smartphone amalgamation.

To me this makes much more sense than a foldable/bendable phone. You could perhaps get a 50% increase in screen real estate and then potentially put a larger battery underneath it.

I'm sure there are use cases for foldable/bendable phones, but I'm struggling to think of one that justifies mass production on the scale Samsung needs to make this commercially viable.
 



Samsung is still on track to unveil its first foldable smartphone later in 2018, Samsung Mobile CEO DJ Koh told CNBC.

According to Koh, it is "time to deliver" on a foldable device after Samsung research revealed that there is consumer interest in such a device.

samsung-bendable-phone.jpg

A smartphone concept with bendable display from Samsung
Samsung first announced its plans for a smartphone with a bendable display in September 2017, and at the time, Koh said that the device would be positioned as a Galaxy Note. Given that Samsung has already announced this year's Galaxy Note 9, it's likely the new foldable smartphone will feature its own branding and will be sold alongside the Galaxy Note and S lines.

Koh declined to share details on how a folding screen might work, but at IFA last week, he said that Samsung is trying to work out the details on differentiating it from a tablet design.Rumors suggest that the device Samsung is working on does not include a hinge and will instead be one single screen that is able to fold in half.

The device is said to be about seven inches diagonally, roughly the size of a small tablet, but it can be folded in half like a wallet. When folded, the exterior of the phone is said to offer a small display bar on the front and cameras in the back, with an all-screen design when opened up.


Koh told CNBC that details on the device could be unveiled at this year's Samsung Developer Conference, set to be held in November in San Francisco, but he did not offer up details on when it might go on sale. He did, however, say that while the development process was "complicated," Samsung has "nearly concluded" it.

Previous information has suggested Samsung is actually aiming to launch the device early in 2019, targeting specific markets like gamers. If initial interest is strong, Samsung is said to be planning for a broader commercial debut during the second half of 2019.

Samsung is aiming to be the first company to come out with a foldable screen, beating other companies like Apple to the new design. Rumors have suggested that Apple is perhaps experimenting with an iPhone with a foldable display.

A 2017 rumor, for example, suggested Apple is working on an iPhone with a foldable display alongside LG Display, and a Merrill Lynch analyst recently predicted Apple will introduce a foldable iPhone in 2020.

lgfoldabledisplay.jpg

LG's foldable display concept
There continues to be no concrete evidence that Apple is pursuing a foldable iPhone, but the company has filed for several patents related to foldable iPhone displays.

Article Link: Samsung Rumored to Debut First Foldable Smartphone This Year
[doublepost=1536099459][/doublepost]Crap that folds is still crap. I value my privacy and I know the best productivity is going to be from a vertically integrated company that manufactures their own chips, hardware and software. So this kind of novelty is far short of a motivation to choose something other than an Apple product.
 
To be honest, I think this is really interesting technology. There’s a lot of unknown factors about foldable displays, however; if Samsung does release a foldable display, and it turns out to be successful, I really would be interested see if Apple would ever consider this route, as diversity is good in offering different types of technology like this. If in fact Samsung does release a foldable display, it’s a product I would consider purchasing, even if it’s not made from Apple.
Apple was very recently granted two patents for foldable displays.
 
Looking forward to watching Apple act like it was their innovation!
 
Would be curious to see the MTBF of the display, especially considering people check their phones 100s of times a day.

I’m also skeptical how durable the actual surface of the display would be without a glass layer.
 
I’m fairly sure they’ve worked that out....

Foldable displays have been in development for years now. It’s the next stage in tech which Apple will follow on and never lead.

Just look at the HomePod
 
Last edited:
If they can keep the phone from being too thick when folded, that would be great.
However, I still would wait for the Apple to do come out with their version as I think I can wait a year or maybe two just to keep my privacy.
 
There is just no way that Samsung gets this right. As others have implied, the screen will fatigue after a few hundred bends or folds and that will be the end of it. Or, they'll produce something so big and ugly that the foldable screen won't really come close to making up for the abject hideousness. Its more than likely that Samsung will try. The device will be a commercial failure. Others will improve on the concept, with minimal success. Eventually, Apple will present a polished product with refined technology that people will actually desire and buy.
 
OK. So thinking this through, I think we are more likely to see a display that almost "rolls out" rather than one that folds in half.

Imagine stretching a phone out to double in size rather than opening it like a book. I could see technology like this working.

However, this screen will by necessity be some type of plastic which will inevitably scratch. So I still don't think the market for this will be very large.

For the record, I am writing this as a very happy owner of a Samsung Galaxy S9+. Have nothing against Samsung products.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.