Newsletter
The recently-concluded Display Week conference in California debuted several new and futuristic display technologies. We saw advanced slidable, rollable, and foldable displays from renowned brands such as Samsung and BOE. LG also brought some next-gen display products to the event, including a 360-degree foldable OLED.
The Korean firm showcased an 8-inch OLED panel that can fold inwards as well as outwards. Samsung’s Flex S OLED, which first appeared in CES 2022 earlier in the year and was on exhibition at Display Week 2022 too, also folds both ways. But it’s a larger device that folds inwards at one place and outwards at the other, which makes it compact and easier for carrying around.
LG’s solution, on the other hand, can fold inwards and outwards along the same crease at the center. Based on the company’s video teaser (attached below), the device can hold its position and various fold angles both ways, something of sorts like the Flex mode on Samsung foldables. This would allow you to half fold it inwards for enhanced multitasking.
Likewise, half folding the device outwards would allow two people to simultaneously operate on either half of the screen. When unfolded fully, you have a tablet-sized device not too dissimilar to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold lineup. It’s a 2,480 x 2,200 pixels resolution panel (via), which is higher than the Fold 3’s 1768 x 2208 pixels resolution.
According to LG, this 360-degree foldable OLED is tested to last 200,000 folds. The company says it has developed an advanced folding mechanism and hinge to allow for a durable dual-foldable display.
LG’s 360-degree foldable OLED isn’t coming out anytime soon
As with most other advanced display solutions that we saw at Display Week 2022 a few days ago, LG’s new 360-degree foldable OLED also won’t see a commercial release anytime soon. These are all prototype products with no timeframe for a real-world debut.
Foldable smartphones (single and unidirectional foldables) have yet to gain any significant traction in the market. In a market largely dominated by Samsung, we could finally have some competition in this space this year. Rollable smartphones should be the next step from here. These kinds of dual-foldable and multi-foldable devices may still be a few years away.
But we expect to see more of this tech in the future. We will keep you posted accordingly. In the meantime, you can check out all the new display solutions that LG demoed at Display Week 2022 in the video below, including the 360-degree foldable OLED, of course.