(Image credit: Samsung Display)
Right now the best foldable phones are considered leading edge when it comes to phone design, but that might not be the case for long. I was one of the first people in the world to go inside Samsung Display’s headquarters in South Korea, and I got a sneak peek at new concepts that take things in boldly weird new directions.Samsung Display showed us two so-called “slidable” designs. The first looks like a compact slab phone, dubbed the Flex Slidable. Starting at 4.7 inches, it expands via a sliding mechanism to reach a mammoth 7.2 inches.
(Image credit: Samsung Display)According to Samsung, pulling one end of the device causes a hidden display to slide out. But I could see there being a button to let you slide the display on command. The actual process of unfurling was on the slow side, but again this was a demo concept.The second slidable was even more intriguing, called Flex Hybrid. This concept also has a sliding display that grows to 7.2 inches, but it’s also foldable for even more versatility. It’s the first mobile device I’ve seen that combines the two technologies — foldable and slidable — into a single product. Foldable tech is applied to the left side of the screen and slidable technology to the right, which according to Samsung makes this a product “that can satisfy both portability and entertainment needs simultaneously.”When are slidables coming?So my question for Samsung Display was, how close are we to slidable phones actually becoming real shipping products?“We have to consider the real-world usage pattern,” said Byung Duk Yang, executive vice president at Samsung Display. “So I think the display might be ready, but we should consider many aspects of the usage. When we have confidence that we can deliver meaningful innovation to users, then we are going to release the product.”“It’s not easy, the slidable form factor. I know many people are very interested in slidable and stretchable (phones). But I’m an engineer, and from the engineer point of view there are many obstacles we have to overcome.”— Byung Duk Yang, Executive VP, Core Component Technology Team, Samsung Display
