Rumors of Samsung working on bendable and foldable displays have been circulating in the tech industry for years now. From Project Valley to numerous patent filings with depictions of foldable smartphones, tablets, and TVs emerging in both the US and Asia for years, it’s clear that the South Korean tech giant has been working on this technology for quite a while despite not yet being ready to implement it into commercial products.
Well, the rumor mill shows no signs of stopping anytime soon as sources have just reported that Samsung Display successfully registered a patent related to manufacturing technology for bendable displays. The registration was completed at the US Patent and Trademark Office earlier today. While patent documents remain undisclosed, Korea Herald reports that they describe the technology which would allow organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays to be folded and bent inwards, as well as manufactured. In addition to that, Samsung Display has allegedly already managed to patent the same technology in its home country of South Korea.
So, what to make out of all of this? For starters, it’s still incredibly unlikely Samsung will even be announcing, let alone launching any foldable smartphones this year. The next event which would realistically be big enough for the company to introduce a major flagship would be the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain which takes place in February. As a matter of fact, Bloomberg is actually reporting that the tech giant is currently pondering the idea of debuting not one, but two smartphones with bendable displays in Barcelona. One of these two rumored devices would literally have the ability to fold in half while the other one would basically be an 8-inch tablet which users could fold into a 5-inch phone. Whether these rumors refer to Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy X, or something else entirely is anyone’s guess at the moment. However, due to the sheer volume of similar reports we’ve been hearing about all over the world in recent months, it’s not unreasonable to presume that Samsung may finally debut a foldable piece of consumer electronics in the near future. Given how it’s been almost four years since the company first demonstrated its flexible OLED display at CES 2013, it’s about time we start seeing some more fruits of Samsung’s foldable endeavors.