Phones with foldable displays have been around for years. Honestly, we didn’t think it would stick given how novel the idea was, but hey, hindsight, right? But now, it looks like Samsung could be interested in challenging the status quo. A recent report revealed a Samsung patent for a phone with a rollable display.
Check out this Samsung rollable phone patent
A render of a Samsung rollable patent appeared on WearView (in collaboration with xleaks7). As you can see in the images below, the filing depicts a phone with a display that rolls out from the side. When the display is tucked in, it looks like a regular phone. However, when unfurled, it looks like a phone with a larger display. Now, the problem with this render is that it’s hard to tell how thick the phone is.
However, the good thing about rollables versus foldables is that in theory, they are thinner. This is because foldables have a display that folds onto itself, essentially doubling the overall thickness of the phone. Rollables, on the other hand, don’t, so on paper it should be thinner. Samsung has also seemingly created a special cutout for the camera.
It’s actually quite a smart idea because moving the camera module to the other side would make the overall phone thicker. However, tucking it away in the rollable part of the phone keeps it slim. Unfortunately, this is only a patent. There’s no telling if and when Samsung plans to make a reality, but there could be some hope.
Samsung has explored the concept of rollables in the past, based on older patent filings. This suggests the company is interested. But whether they’re interested enough to commercialize it is a different story.
The form factor LG could have dominated with
That being said, Samsung isn’t the first to come up with this idea. While Samsung and other phone makers were chasing foldables, LG decided to create a rollable phone. Unfortunately, the company decided to exit the smartphone market before the phone could be launched. But just this year, there were some videos that showed working prototypes.
It honestly looked pretty cool and seemed to share a similar design to Samsung’s patent. It’s a pity we’ll never really know how it might have impacted the market. Maybe it would have flopped, and that would have been the end of it. Or maybe it would have been a commercial success and potentially overtaken the foldable form factor. Too bad we’ll never find out.
The post Samsung’s Wild Rollable Phone Patent Shows an Ingenious Hidden Camera Trick appeared first on Android Headlines.
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