LG rollable phone lines up Galaxy Z Flip rumble as secret 'Project B' leaks

(Image credit: LG)

published 4 July 2020

Do you have a folding phone yet? If not, stop looking adoring at that Galaxy Z Flip, because folding phones are dead. Well, that's according to a new report, which says we'll all be eyeing up rollable smartphones in 2021, courtesy of LG's 'Project B'.

LG's rollable phone, reportedly named the Project B after LG CEO Kwon Bong-seok, is apparently already in production, with a prototype available at LG's Pyeongtaek location. This all comes from a report by The Elec

The phone's display is being developed by Chinese outfit BOE in tandem to LG, all the better to perfect the concept of a rollable display, which allows users to extend the screen outwards whenever needed.

LG could do with the help here, the company's mobile business has posted 20 straight quarters of loss, but if everyone else is excited about the concept as LG is, this could come up big for the company. It isn't the first time LG and rollable phones have come up together, after all: IP Park, the CTO and President of LG Electronics, hasn't been shy about the company's ambitions in both foldable and rollable phones, and there have been trademark filings from 2019 indicating rollable phones were on the way.

If it all sounds science fiction as all hell, it is, but LG has already made it work with their Signature OLED R, a TV that rolls up into a coffee table base when not needed… which will cost you $60,000. A small price to pay to live in a real-world Minority Report, perhaps.

So, rollable displays are a reality, and LG has worked it out for big TVs, and is currently in the process of working out how to downscale them for mobile and touch-screen interface. We've not seen anything public on this, including a prototype, but early 2021 still seems to be the intended release date, meaning we could hear more about it at CES 2021, with an earlier look if we get lucky.

It's not even LG's only science fiction phone concept. The "Wing" project is a smartphone that pairs the main 6.8-inch display with a secondary 4-inmch screen, according to this report from ETNews. Wild.

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