Have you ever dropped your phone onto a hard surface and felt that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach as you see that, yes, the screen has cracked? Have you ever sat down, forgetting that it’s in your back pocket? Or just wished that there was some middle-ground between maximum screen size and portability?
Foldable phones could be the answer, and Samsung could be leading the field when it comes to the technology. In its most recent earnings report, the Korean giant said that it will “continue its efforts to differentiate its smartphones by adopting cutting-edge technologies, such as foldable OLED displays.”
When tech site Wired asked for a little more, they were met with a stonewalling answer of: "We do not have any further information."
With the company having made numerous patent applications in the area, however, it’s thought that Samsung’s long-anticipated foldable Galaxy X could be nearing a commercial production phase.
Why the fuss about foldable phones?
Any innovation in the smartphone market is likely to attract at least an initial flurry of attention, but to gain traction, it must also bring genuine value.
As Matthew Cockerill, Creative Director and Head of Studio London at Swift Creatives tells Wired: “The challenge for designers is how this technology can allow us to create meaningful value beyond the transient novelty of the new ... What can flexible phones allow us to do that the current rigid phones can't?"
For fans of flip-tops, foldable phones could offer a similar compact design but without the halving or break in the screen. This means bigger screens folded into a smaller pocket or handbag space. Foldable screen technology also promises to be much more durable than rigid screens.
Professor Roel Vertegaal, developer of the ReFlex flexible phone prototype at the Human Media Lab of Queen's University in Canada, told Wired: “[Flexible phones] are built to withstand pressure, they are built to curve in your pocket, they are lighter. And when you drop them, there is no damage to the screen – you cannot break the glass."
There’s always a premium for newness, but in the fullness of time, Vertegaal thinks that foldable phones could drive down production costs.
"In principle, the technology is plastic and it should just be printable, which means that flexible screens should be a lot cheaper,” he added.
What are the challenges?
We won’t hold our collective breath on that, but for now there are still numerous challenges to overcome. The first foldable phones are likely to be hybrids with hinges and rigid parts.
Vertegaal said: “The biggest issue is that everything either has to have some flexibility or you have to have rigid parts to it."
Going beyond that to full flexibility, you will also need a highly durable substrate and touch layer. Most touchscreen displays currently use indium tin oxide (ITO) as the transparent conductive material, but this is not flexible, meaning that next-gen flexible conductive materials would be required. According to Ron Mertens of industry news and consultancy firm OLED-Info, this could involve graphene, silver nanowire or a metal mesh.
There’s still a way to go until we get a truly flexible phone, but if Samsung really is on the verge of an announcement, the foldable phone could be the next big thing.
