Rollable phones sound like progress but what if they are a dead-end?

The foldable display is the industry's — and Samsung's — answer to the stagnant slab-phone design. It enables entirely new form factors, but it also comes with limits.

Flexible display technology can branch into two main directions: foldable and rollable. Samsung has explored foldables extensively but barely touched the rollable side.

Plenty of patents for rollable designs exist, and one of Samsung's former rivals, LG, even built a rollable phone prototype before exiting the smartphone market altogether.

I'm not saying the rollable phone project bankrupted LG's mobile division, but it probably didn't help. Either way, I remain highly skeptical of this particular use of flexible displays. I may be an outlier, but I simply don't believe in rollable designs all that much.

Rollable phones sound exciting in theory, but by my observations, turning them into real products introduces more problems and compromises than most people realize.

Personally, I'm close to saying yes. Rollable phones come with so many engineering and design challenges that mass-manufacturing them may never become truly viable.

The more you think about the concept, the more issues appear. Here are the biggest reasons I believe rollable phones may never go mainstream.

These are only some of the issues that come to mind when I think about rollable phones. But the list isn't necessarily exhaustive.

But what about human ingenuity? It can do wonders. Could engineers eventually overcome these problems with enough time and money? Probably. But at what point does the pursuit become impractical?

Right now, I think rollable phones already cross that line. But the most important aspect of all is that foldables can achieve the same basic goal, i.e., multiple form factors within the same device, with far fewer compromises, moving pieces, failure points, and resources spent.

Having said that, I am inclined to believe that the foreseeable future of flexible displays still belongs to foldables. What comes after that, in the very distant future, is open for debate. But rollables feel too ambitious, too fragile, and too expensive to become realistic alternatives to foldables anytime soon.

Eventually, rollable designs may find a niche, maybe once foldables become old news. But until then, and as long as there's still room to grow in the foldable department, I don't believe rollables stand a chance. This might not be the most popular opinion, and maybe Samsung will prove me wrong sooner rather than later. Only time will tell.