*Image credit — DomoAI
Smartphones kept their tried and tested design for a very long time without any real major innovation. That changed when foldable phones first made their appearance though they still lacked the finesse of their traditional counterparts. This still remains the case — leading to revised sales expectations for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Fold 7 — but phone manufacturers still have a trick up their sleeves.A render of Samsung’s potential rollable phone recently showed up and I couldn’t help but envision the future that the company has in mind. Granted that this is a render based off of a patent and nothing more which means that it’s almost guaranteed that this doesn’t resemble any possible final product.
But similar technology has been manufactured successfully in the past. The Oppo X 2021 rollable phone demonstration comes to mind: when the company showed off a real working prototype. So this is very much a possibility and as such I think that it’s worth discussing.
What’s a rollable smartphone?
Oppo’s foldable phone prototype. | Image credit — Engadget
A rollable smartphone aims to bring a user the same experience as a foldable: a phone that can be unfolded (or rolled open in this case) to provide more screen real estate. Unlike foldables, however, a rollable phone doesn’t snap closed like a book or an old school flip phone. Instead this phone can be “stretched” to the desired screen size and the content on the display adjusts itself accordingly.
It’s mind-blowing tech and the Oppo demonstration, in my opinion, is still a better smartphone than any foldable phone that we have on the market today. There’s a reason that foldables haven’t sold as well as companies had hoped. In fact some manufacturers are abandoning foldables altogether. Samsung will also hold a very limited production run for its upcoming tri-foldable smartphone.
And this is all because foldables simply aren’t good enough to justify their price tags.
The foldable problem that rollable phones solve
The crease on a Galaxy Z Fold 6. | Image credit — PhoneArena
What’s so bad about foldable smartphones? To me the biggest issue still remains the crease. There are many who will argue that creases on today’s foldables are barely noticeable but that’s not good enough for me. I want my phone screens to be a perfectly uniform display without any distractions. It’s also why I dislike the notch and punch hole trends and cannot wait for under-display cameras to become good enough that they are viable replacements.
With a foldable phone the issue of a visible crease goes away. Oppo’s demonstration showed a phone where the display looked almost completely normal when it was done adjusting to a new size. This will make for a smartphone that is both compact when in your pocket and also worth expanding when in use.
Rollable phones will also let users set their own preferred size for the phone’s display. You can pull the display until it’s just the right size, provided you stay below the maximum limit of course. That just sounds so much more useful than a foldable phone that only has two sizes.
When can we expect a rollable phone?
No clue. There are some really hopeful people out there that believe that Samsung will release a rollable phone this year. That, at least in my opinion, is highly unlikely. Samsung is too busy with its upcoming tri-foldable and the Galaxy S25 Edge. If Samsung suddenly announces a rollable phone this year as well then tech enthusiasts will be over the moon.
It’ll also finally prompt me to give an expandable phone a try. I was quite a fan of flip phone eons ago and another phone that can change sizes seems quite fun. The crease on today’s foldables has kept me far away but a rollable may just reel me in.
It’ll also be hilarious if Samsung or another large manufacturer drops a rollable smartphone during or before 2027. That’s because Apple is reportedly planning the foldable iPhone for 2027 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iPhone. Leave it to Android phones to upstage Apple during its big year.
