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Samsung’s first attempt at foldables was at the receiving end of a lot of criticism, mainly due to a fragile build, which even catalyzed the recall of review units, as well as a luxury price tag that deterred potential buyers. Despite some initial hiccups, Samsung got very close to the half-a-million worldwide sales figure—a milestone to marvel at for a first-gen novelty. This bumpy ride taught Samsung some critical lessons and helped it double down its efforts on the follow-up Fold. The result, rumors say, is a foldable phone that better fits your pocket—both physically and pecuniarily.
At a private briefing during MWC (that evidently wasn't all that private), TCL showed us some concepts of foldable screens and devices it's been working on. The devices don't have names, release dates, or even really a considered use case - they're just explorations of form factor and engineering, not reflections of upcoming product designs. They're neat to look at, but that's really all you can say about them at this point. Well, almost.
We've been hearing about Samsung's smartphone with a foldable screen for what seems like an eternity, but it looks like we'll have to wait a little longer to finally see the thing. Flexible screens have been demoed at trade shows for years, but getting them into a production-ready phone is another matter entirely. Samsung had seemed the most likely to make this dream a reality, but it must be as hard to do as it sounds — the project keeps getting put back.
Foldable smartphones with bendy screens have seemingly been on the horizon for some time. It's seen by some as the next great innovation in the industry, essentially giving you a tablet sized screen in a device with the footprint of a phone. While we've seen numerous concepts and heard many proclamations, nothing concrete has surfaced just yet. But that doesn't stop companies like Samsung from talking about it. In the latest comments to come from the Korean firm, Koh Dong-jin, president of mobile business, says the first flexible device could be ready in 2018.
Update: Portal has been removed from IndieGoGo after a patent troll issued a DMCA takedown notice. Organizer and creator Arubixs is fighting back. This should be entertaining.
If you've always wanted a phone with a big, curved screen, LG wants to grant your wish. To that end the company is now mass-producing flexible OLED screen panels, presumably for an upcoming device or class of devices. The screen itself (not the phone or tablet that it's going into) will be 6 inches diagonally, .44mm thin, and just 7.2 grams.
Flexible displays are a great idea. Without flexible glass to go with it, though, some applications still remain difficult. Thankfully, Corning, the company behind Gorilla Glass (otherwise known as "the only type of glass you know by name"), has introduced a new flexible glass called Willow Glass. This new material is slim and strong, though we'd expect nothing less from Corning. The product will also allow manufacturers to pursue roll-to-roll processing which, if you're familiar with materials processing and manufacturing, you know is a very big deal. If you're not, here's the short version: it makes things cheaper.
You may remember way back in 2010 when Samsung first demonstrated a new flexible display technology, wowing onlookers and begging the question "what's the application?"
Truly stylish clock/date widgets of high quality are hard to come by, so whenever we see one released, we jump on it right away. Today's highlight is Typography Wall that was just released into the Android Market.
I have a soft spot for well done demoes, even if they exist only in concept form, and today's design by Kristian Ulrich Larsen fits right into this category (did you really expect anything else from a designer with such an awesome name?).
In a Galaxy Tab far, far away ... there is a 7" AMOLED panel. While other manufacturers are fretting over OLED panel shortages, no such difficulties seem to be presenting themselves to Samsung, as the screen display technology was out in full force at their FPD2010 booth today.