Samsung Display has shared a video on YouTube showing the demonstration of its recently unveiled 9.1-inch stretchable OLED display. The video shows the display panel being pushed inside from the center and then coming back to its original shape after a while like a rubber balloon. The display is visible at the bottom while at the top, it seems like Samsung is showing a projection of the content on the panel to demonstrate that stretching of the display does not affect the quality of the content.
The description of the video refers to the stretchable display as the “next-generation technology” with no clear mention of what would be its commercial implementation. Samsung is expecting this new display and technology to be used for Internet of Things (IoT), wearables, automotive, and artificial intelligence applications, the company previously said, without clarifying on the matter. The creation was first showcased at Display Week 2017 event held last week by the Society of Information Display (SID) in Los Angeles, California. The stretchable OLED display panel can be flexed in two directions, unlike currently used flexible displays which support forming only in one direction like bending, rolling, or folding. The newer display can be flexed up to a length of 12mm by applying pressure without having any impact on the original image quality. This holds true for both directions, upward and inward.
There is no doubt that Samsung Display’s newest stretchable display panel looks promising and has the potential to change the way display panels and other gadgets are used but its commercialization aspect seems to be uncertain for now. Other than this, flexible and stretchable displays are currently seen as more of a luxurious offering with very little to no practical usability factor. Samsung is known for filing patents and demonstrating prototypes for such displays with the most universally accepted commercial product to date being the Edge display on its previous phones and the Infinity Display on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. While it remains to be seen whether the South Korean tech giant manages to commercialize this technology anytime soon, an update on its efforts to do so may follow shortly.