Samsung Display's Rollable Flex OLED panel can roll and unroll like a scroll

During the SID Display Week 2023 event, which will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California, USA, Samsung Display will showcase the Rollable Flex OLED panel that can stretch up to 12.4 inches in size. It can be rolled open from 49mm to 254.4mm in size, potentially turning from a phone to a tablet. Unlike conventional folding and sliding screens that offer up to 3x scalability, Samsung's Rollable Flex OLED panels offer more than 5x the scalability (going from 49mm to 254.4mm in size).

As Samsung Display explains, the company was able to achieve this level of flexibility by making the OLED panel roll and unroll on an O-shaped axis like a scroll. “The biggest feature is that we were able to turn a difficult-to-carry large-sized display into a portable form factor by making it rollable,” Samsung Display explained.

In addition, the South Korean display giant will also unveil Flex In & Out OLED panels. These screens can fold inwards and outwards, unlike the inward folding screens that are currently being used in foldable smartphones like the Galaxy Z Fold 4. As the Flex In & Out panels can fold both ways, foldable phones based on these screens wouldn't need a separate cover display on the outside, making phones thinner and lighter.

Samsung Display also plans to showcase Flex Hybrid and Slidable Flex Solo OLED panels at SID Display Week 2023. Flex Hybrid OLED combines folding and sliding technologies into the same panel, offering a way to fit a larger screen in compact devices. The company had originally unveiled this technology last year. Slidable Flex Solo OLED panel can expand from a 13-inch tablet to a 17-inch screen.