Samsung may have a future in rollable displays, as it’s now patented a new rollable display design that appears to be meant for a mobile device.
This particular design is different from a patent that Samsung filed for back in February of this year. That patent appeared to be for a smart speaker that Samsung may currently be working on.
This new one though is very clearly for either a smartphone or a tablet. Or rather, a Samsung smartphone where the design of the rollable display allows it to transform into a tablet if needed.
The Samsung rollable display design is for a touch panel
The patent specifically states that this design is for a touch display panel. Which means that Samsung at the very least has an idea to potentially use this for an upcoming device.
Because this is a rollable display, part of the panel is wrapped around a roller that’s hidden on the inside of the device. When extended, all of that display is essentially off the roller. Allowing a user to interact with the device in a bigger format.
When needed, the user could collapse the device back down to a smaller format. At which point part of the display panel would wrap back around the rollers.
The interesting thing about this design is that you could move to using the device in landscape mode without having to turn the device on its side. Imagine scrolling through your YouTube feed one moment then watching a video in landscape mode the next.
And all you had to do is pull the display panel out to the sides.
The display would probably be made of the same material as the Galaxy Z Flip
Samsung is no stranger to flexible displays at this point. Having launched both the Galaxy Fold and the Galaxy Z Flip, and with the Galaxy Fold 2 presumably on the way, Samsung already has the tech it would need to make a rollable display like this one.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the company has plans to actually bring the device to market. But it would be seemingly be possible, given Samsung’s existing presence in the space.
Also worth mentioning is that because the device wouldn’t fold like Samsung’s two currently available phones, it may not suffer from the same issues. Samsung has labeled this as a flexible display device. And while it looks like a phone or smaller tablet, it could easily be applied to TVs.
