Samsung teases rollable and slidable smartphones

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 (Image credit: Aakash Jhaveri)

With the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 (along with their predecessors) Samsung already has more foldable phones on the market than other companies, but it looks like this might just be the beginning, with new models and whole new form factors possibly in the works.

The company has launched a site highlighting various different uses for flexible OLED screens, and as well as the designs we’ve seen so far, the site also shows a ‘Slidable Flex’ design, which appears to be a flat display that can be extended by pulling the edges, and a ‘Rollable Flex’ screen which can unfurl from a tube.

Then there’s also the ‘Flex Note’, which is less interesting as it’s basically just the Galaxy Z Fold design turned on its side, for more of a laptop-like look.

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A Samsung slidable screen concept — (Image credit: Samsung)

It’s worth noting that Samsung hasn’t confirmed it’s working on phones with any of these designs – they’re simply possible use cases of its flexible OLED screen tech. Still, the fact that they’ve been shown here suggests the company might at least be considering them.

Then again, the word ‘phone’ isn’t actually used alongside any of these displays, so they could just as well be used in TVs, laptops, or other gadgets. So don’t get your hopes up about seeing a rollable Samsung phone anytime soon, but don’t count it out either.

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Samsung isn’t the only company exploring rollable phones, as we’ve also seen rollable phone concepts from the likes of TCL, while we even went hands on with the rollable Oppo X 2021.

LG reportedly even came very close to putting one (dubbed the LG Rollable) on sale, before abruptly exiting the smartphone market.

So it seems that rollable phones could be the next step in smartphone design, and by the looks of things Samsung might have some competition in the space, though when we’ll actually be able to buy such a phone still isn’t entirely clear.

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.