The TV you unroll like a projector screen is inching ever closer thanks to LG's advances with its OLED screen technology. At CES this week LG is showing off a flexible 18-inch OLED panel that it says can roll up as tightly as a newspaper.
In its private showroom, on site at CES, LG is demonstrating its latest OLED and LCD TV tech, but it's the flexible display which is likely to really grab the imagination with its futuristic feel.
The self-emitting nature of OLED means that it needs no extra backlighting to display a bright, clear image, and that in turn means that it can be made incredibly thin. It also makes for some stunning pictures as we've seen in both the LG and Panasonic OLED TVs which hit the market last year.
We've already seen LG demonstrating a 1mm thick 55-inch TV that you can stick to the wall, but being flexible enough that you can roll it up so tightly makes this smaller screen incredibly versatile.
Already been done
But while it seems super futuristic, this 18-inch panel may already be a couple of years old. It was back in 2014 that LG first demonstrated a flexible OLED prototype, and if this is the same 18-inch 1200 x 810 resolution panel it showed off back then that could explain why LG is now happy to have it manhandled by the media masses at CES.
Hopefully the fact this prototype is being wheeled out in the showroom might indicate there are bigger things afoot for LG's OLED gang, and not just the hulking great 86-inch Super UHD 8K TVs we've heard about.
When LG first showed off its 18-inch flexible prototype it was expecting to have Ultra HD flexible OLEDs at 60 inches as soon as next year. Fingers crossed it's well on its way to achieving that feat as we're definitely up for some high-resolution flexible screens in our phones and tablets while we wait for the big screens to roll around.
