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Smartphone maker and display manufacturer Samsung is believed to launch a pair of smartphones in early 2017, each with a bendable OLED display. According to people familiar with the smartphones' development (via Bloomberg), the two devices could be unveiled as early as Q1 2017 -- potentially at Mobile World Congress in February -- and come in two different sizes, similar to that of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

samsung-bendable-phone.jpg

Bendable smartphone mockup by Samsung


One phone would have a 5-inch screen when used in a normal handset fashion, and could then be opened to a tablet size that's "as large as 8 inches." The smaller alternative is estimated to be sized around a traditional modern 5-inch smartphone, but users would have the ability to fold it in half "like a cosmetic compact" to easily fit it into bags and pockets.
Codenamed "Project Valley," the bendable smartphones won't be Samsung's new flagship devices, and are believed to be angled more as an experiment by the company to test the waters of user response to bendable screens. Because of this, the two new handhelds also won't fall under the Galaxy S line of phones currently running by Samsung, but will be newly named entries in its collection of smartphones.


While not bendable, Apple's 2017 iPhone is expected to pack in a curved OLED display with an edge-to-edge, bezel-free design, similar to that of Samsung's Galaxy S7 smartphone. Overall, Apple's "iPhone 8" is expected to be a huge update year for the company's smartphone, following 2016's internals-focused upgrade, so it'll be interesting to see how the the two handhelds fare against each other when they launch.

Article Link: Samsung Rumored to Launch Fully Bendable Smartphones in 2017
Apple now firmly in catch-up, us next please, please, do you think we could buy them, it's the only way we know, mode.
 
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Very interesting concept and yes I do think they need to get it out in real life situations to see how it holds up - it will take a few iterations but this could really the next big thing for phones - it will probably be something that could become the replacement of the Galaxy line - cant wait ;-)
 
What's this commercial supposed to highlight? Productivity? Flexibility (pun opportunity) of operation? No: Snazzy tech = poon.

Entertaining, sure but the bearing of this commercial is how you will dominate the reproductive pool with their tech and apparently cafe magazine ladies think the guys holding devices must've created them as evidenced by her wonderment.
 
Have to give credit where it's due. Great concept, hope it's implemented well. I would love to carry a normal sized phone in my pocket, then flip it open to watch a movie or read a book.
This. Lots of people here will still deride it though because it isn’t made in or copied from Poopertino.
 
Of course Samsung must test the water with this.

Typing on plastic instead of glass on a sandwich-thick device that must be opened every time is not going to be a best seller out of the blue.

As for the "innovation" whiners, give me a break. Apple has changed the world in the last ten years. No company, ever, will have a breakthrough product every second year.

Samsung innovations are in the semiconductor branch, not in the consumer space, and no, a giant clone of the iPhone is no innovation by any means.
 
Hope this is true. Would be pretty neat. But bet the first gen devices will suffer many issues as they see real world wear and tear from daily users.
Definitely and in truth I think it’s a long way off in practice. Could you imagine people folding it where it isn’t supposed to be folded and the warranty claims from people that have mistreated it.
 
Interesting tech, but I don't want version 1.0 of this :)
Agreed. v.1 will most probably have some serious growing pains. Pretty smart of them not to go all S-version on this. Test it out, see the reception, refine, then S it up if warranted. The thing no one has mentioned is Samsung has to be pretty far down the road on this project. That video is from 2014. Quite interesting tech indeed.


Right around the time Samsung finishes rolling out Marshmallow...
I know this was in jest, but my two versions old S5 is on Marshmallow. Android as a whole has gotten better with OS updates. Although it really doesn't matter as much as it does on iOS. Core apps are updated individually, negating the need to update the full OS every time.
 
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Flimsy, bendable, plastic phones that have the fortitude of a candy wrapper. That's the future?

No "the future" is mostly the same thing we've seen year after year but slightly thinner, probably attained by ejecting common ubiquitous utility to create the space for "thinning.":rolleyes:

At least this is trying to roll out something tangibly and meaningfully different than the "same old, same old." An ability to end up with a relatively compact phone AND a mini-like tablet in one box has great appeal to me... even more so if Apple would replicate it with iOS running on it.
 
So they've invented bendable PCBs? And SoCs? And batteries?

Doubt it.

Prototypes of all those have been shown, but are not needed in this design. It bends at the centre, the chips and batteries can be in either rigid half, so only the screen needs to bend, which multiple companies have shown over the last few years, including Samsung.
 
If Apple did this, you'd see these comments:

'I've seen bendable things before. This isn't innovation.'

But since Samsung is doing this, it's 'innovation'.

Just the opposite...

Since Samsung appears to be beating Apple to this punch and there's nothing to directly spin "Samesung copying Apple" it's a "gimmick"... soon to be followed by "useless", "99% don't need" and the usual anti-<everyone not named Apple> punches.

I recall how much of a "gimmick", "useless", "99% don't need" PLUS "fragmentation", "one handed use", "pants with bigger pockets", and on and on was spun against phones with bigger screens when Samsung was pushing those and Apple still clung to 4" or less.

I'm still looking for all those pants with bigger pockets and, apparently, all of our hands grew.;)
 
We wish picking up girls WAS that easy...

Of all the companies,, only Samsung could actually take this "bend-gate" thing so serious.... And every one will just say it's cool...

Ironically, but when its used for other purposes like "testing the strength of a phone" we have a change of mind... When does this stop ...

This IS bendable, but its anything BUT cool.... I already have something that bends... its called a wallet.
 
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