Yahoo Finance Samsung teases its next generation of flexible displays
It also showed off an under panel camera in a notebook.
Samsung used its first-mover advantage in foldables to establish a lead in the fledgling category. Last winter, it confirmed its commitment to folding devices by promising new launches that would make the premium tech more accessible. Today, we're getting a peep at the future foldables it has in store, including larger flexible displays for phones and tablets. It showcased the prototypes at the Display Week 2021 event, according to SamMobile.
Among the concepts was a double-folding OLED panel (pictured above) that can be used like a smartphone. When unfolded, the screen has a maximum size of 7.2-inches, which puts it between the main display on the Galaxy Z Flip (6.7-inches) and the Galaxy Fold 2 (7.6-inches).
Ditching folds, Samsung also showed off a Slidable OLED display that extends horizontally. As a sign of the innovation in the space, we've already seen similar devices with slide-out and rollable screens teased by TCL and LG (before it gave up on its mobile phone business). While neither of those have launched yet, China's Oppo has revealed a working prototype in its X 2021 rollable phone, which can switch between a conventional 6.7-inch screen and a larger 7.4-inch screen.
Indicating that we may soon get a folding Galaxy tablet, Samsung unveiled a 17-inch foldable panel at the event. With a 4:3 aspect ratio when unfolded, the display is larger than the 13.3-inch screen on Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Fold foldable PC.
Finally, Samsung also offered a glimpse at its under panel camera (UPC) display inside a concept notebook, which would allow for edge-to-edge panels. The company previously teased the tech on Chinese social media, promising that the UPCs would lead to thinner and lighter laptops with smaller bezels. Again, the under screen camera tech is already available in the wild on ZTE's Axon 20 5G phone and is supposed to be coming to Xiaomi's handsets this year. With the rest of the industry piling in on foldables, including (if you believe the long-standing rumors) Apple, Samsung is showing no signs of slowing down.
