Smartphones with foldable displays are officially an (expensive) thing, but convertible laptops with foldable displays aren’t exactly common yet. Lenovo plans to bring the ThinkPad X1 Fold to market, but that’s just about the only example I can think of.
But maybe that will change now that LG has introduced a new 13.3 inch foldable OLED display that’s suitable for laptops and tablets.
It’s one of several new flexible displays that the company is showcasing during this week’s SID Display Week virtual conference.
LG says its laptop-sized foldable screen is a 13.3 inch, 2048 x 1536 pixel display with 95-percent color gamut and support for up to 300-nits of brightness. When fully unfolded, that gives you a large tablet. When bent at the center, a virtual keyboard or pen input field can be displayed on the bottom portion of the screen, allowing you to use a computer in laptop mode.
The LG prototype used to show off this display also includes a notification area at front of the device, where the screen wraps around the bottom edge in a way that allows you to see time, battery and wireless status, and other information as well as incoming messages.
According to LG, the foldable LED is also “the first of its kind” to support active pen touch input.
Other new displays the company is showcasing include a transparent OLED display for use in stores, museums, or art galleries, a rollable OLED display that can be rolled down from the ceiling like a projector screen, a smaller rollable display that can be used for in-car infotainment systems, and a 65 inch bendable OLED display that allows you to adjust the curvature of the display for gaming, watching movies, or other activities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpMDKJPSUKg&feature=emb_title
I’ve watched the presentation video and liked all the demos. Except for the 13.3″ foldable which looks like a total beta, even alpha stage product (look at 1:12 in the video), or even a gimmick to me. Maybe I’m old school, but Microsoft’s implementation of the same idea is just good enough to me. Not to mention you have all the technology to make that a viable product today.
Not to mention Microsoft’s designers put in a lot of thought to come up with what I consider a perfect aspect ratio for this type of device so obviously LG had to be different and screwing it up with a different aspect ratio. For some reason.
I think that is really cool.
I figure that, unless you have a keyboard that docks onto the side of a 13″ foldable tablet, there’s not much point in it being a foldable tablet.
Certainly interesting. Although, looking at the current foldable screen phones, this is all still in the very early first adopters stage with the whole early day issues. At least they’re trying and, hopefully, all the issues that real world use find get resolved.
This looks like something I don’t need at all, but still definitely want.