Although Samsung's display division has experimented for years with all sorts of ambitious but admittedly barely functional prototypes based on foldable and rollable display technology, Samsung's mobile division has taken things slowly.
For five years, Samsung MX focused entirely on the now tried-and-tested Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip formulas. However, this approach to refining things and playing the game safe might not last forever, and rumors say Samsung could release its first rollable phone in 2025.
If it does, I will be thoroughly surprised.
The idea is that, pushed by the competition, Samsung might soon have to show the world that it has a drive to innovate and not just refine.
Some say the company will do this by releasing a rollable Galaxy phone, but the more I think about it, the more I realize how much more difficult it might be to develop a commercially viable rollable phone compared to a foldable one. Maybe it might not even be worth the trouble. Do you remember what happened to LG?
I'll be amazed if Samsung MX pulls off a rollable phone
My concern with rollable phones is that they may have more engineering problems to solve and more potential points of failure than foldable phones before they can be more than prototypes. It may not seem like it at a glance, but there's a lot that could go wrong with a rollable phone.
For example, are you fearful that a foldable phone's display could break if a pebble got stuck between the two folding panels? Now imagine what could happen if a grain of sand got stuck between a soft rollable screen and the slot it goes in and out of when rolling in and out. It could result in a scratch (or worse, a cut) that nobody would soon forget.
Furthermore, if most foldable phones have one hinge and one display crease to worry about, imagine how rollable phones put stress on nearly half a screen when they roll in and out. These displays don't just fold. They roll. And it seems to me like they'd need to be a lot more resilient to become commercially viable.
Potential problems I see include:
- Rollable phones might be inherently thicker than foldable phones or at least have a thicker edge to leave room for the display to roll at a safe radius.
- A rolling mechanism seems much more delicate, complex, and prone to failure even than the most complex foldable phone hinges already on the market.
- Although rollable phones could be operated manually, adding an automated rolling mechanism powered by motors would probably inflate the price beyond all reason.
- Roughly half of the entire display, rather than the area around the hinge, would be stressed from rolling and unrolling.
- It might be impossible or at least very difficult to engineer a rollable phone with decent water resistance.
- As mentioned before, a rollable design seems much more susceptible to damage from dust, sand grains, pebbles, and other foreign objects. If anything gets rolled into the phone alongside the rollable display, that could be an instant failure point.
- Rollable screens need to be able to take a beating. Not only because they roll in and out constantly but because they are essentially cover screens with no protection.
I sometimes look back at LG's attempt to create a foldable phone, and I see all these potential issues manifested in that one prototype.
Yes, in case you didn't know, LG tried the rollable phone formula very seriously with the so-called LG Rollable two years ago, but the company may have flown too close to the sun. The LG Rollable project wasn't canceled. The whole mobile division got shut down. The causes were many, but I wonder if LG would've still shut down its mobile division in 2022 if it deemed the Rollable a complete success.
What remained of those ambitions was a handful of LG Rollable prototypes that some ex-LG Mobile employees obtained legitimately. One such prototype was featured in a lengthy YouTube video two years ago, and the more I study that phone in said clip, the more I see how difficult it might be to create a commercially viable rollable phone.
All in all, I hope Samsung MX, not just the Display division, has something exciting coming soon. At the very least, something that would remind everyone that Samsung isn't the top dog for nothing.
But as far as rollable phones go, I have my doubts, as rollable designs seem inherently more difficult to engineer compared to foldable phones. I'd be extremely surprised if Samsung pulled a rabbit out of its hat within the next 12 months and released a rollable phone, but you never know. Still, in this particular case, I prefer not to get my hopes up.
