A couple of years ago, few people thought about the emergence of bendable smartphones with flexible screens on the market, but in 2018 futuristic gadgets from science fiction, apparently, will become a part of everyday life. Sony and Samsung are actively involved in their development, the latter promises to release a flexible clamshell model this year.
Beauty or convenience?
South Korean giant Samsung has announced the launch of its flagship Galaxy X foldable smartphone with a flexible display. At CES-2018 in Las Vegas, a prototype of the device was presented. The closed presentation was held in front of a very limited circle of people, so ordinary users can only guess what to expect from a phone with a flexible screen, and all kinds of rumors circulate on the Internet.
It is reliably known from those who visited the exhibition that the smartphone will be equipped with a 7, 3-inch display, but there is no information about the technical characteristics yet. The main drawback of the model, as one would expect, is called an unreliable design. Samsung specialists are currently engaged in solving this problem. The launch of production is scheduled for November this year. If all goes according to plan, the finished smartphone will be unveiled to the general public in 2019.
On the heels of Samsung, competitors from Doogee are advancing: the company is developing a smartphone with thin bezels and a vertically bending AMOLED display. Here the story is more about aesthetics - the bending angle will be negligible. The Mix 3 promises to be comfortable to use with one hand, strong, lightweight and reliable. The display will have a wide color gamut, wide viewing angle, high contrast. The cost of such pleasure is already known - not less than $ 199.99.
The Japanese Sony are not yet so successful in the smartphone market, but this does not prevent them from making ambitious plans. Flexible displays for the company will be supplied by LG: OLED panels from LG Display are already in full use in TVs of the Japanese brand, the cooperation is planned to expand to smartphones. According to Hitoshi Osawa, Sony's director of product marketing, mobile devices will be equipped with 4K-OLED matrices, all other details are kept secret by the brand representatives.
And what about Apple?
Interestingly, Apple doesn't shine too much in this race. Maybe the giant and industry leader doesn't care about such "toys"? Not at all - the company has already formed a team that will develop an iPhone with a flexible screen, but it will not be released until 2020. At the same time, it is planned to release a reliable and flexible printed circuit board. Notably, the foldable OLED screen for Apple will also be supplied by LG.
Experts predict success for the new product - it will be a truly revolutionary device. Curved phones raise a lot of questions in terms of reliability and usability, but Apple has taken care of everything. The future iPhone will have two fold modes, one like a book and the other like a notebook, with one half supporting the other. The body will be made of rubber. It will also require the creation of a battery that can withstand such radical deformation.
