LG announced on Monday
that it will start mass-producing a flexible, curved smartphone screen.
Its first devices to use the new 6-inch OLED screens will be available
next year.
Several companies have
shown prototypes of flexible displays before, but so far there haven't
been any mass-market bendy phones. Samsung announced a similar screen technology last month and plans to release the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 3, its first device with a curved display, later in October.
Apple has long been rumored to be looking into similar technology for the iPhone. A patent filed in March
describes an "electronic device with wrap around display" that would go
around most, or all, of the device. Apple, like other companies,
sometimes files patents for products that never come to market.
What's clear in the minds
of many is that the coming wave of flexible and curved displays is just
the first step in what could become a dramatic shift in what we expect
of our phones.
"What we're seeing today
is a big step toward a break from the rectangular norm of smartphone
design, paving the way for more outlandish shapes and sizes for future
devices," Aaron Souppouris, of tech blog The Verge, wrote Monday.
Since Apple released the keyboard-killing iPhone, the physical design of smartphones has pretty much stagnated.
The touchscreen
rectangles have appeared in different sizes, and recently companies like
Motorola and Apple have tried to spice things up with different colors
and patterns on the back. But the basic look is the same.
Most of the serious
competition takes place inside the devices. Manufacturers compete for
the best camera, the fastest processor, the widest selection of apps
and, of course, low price tags.
When all those specs are
close and the devices start to blend together, companies turn to
splashier -- some might say gimmicky -- features to try to make their
5-inch Android smartphones stand out from the other guy's 5-inch Android
smartphones.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a motion-controlled scrolling feature to make it easier to read text without tiring your fingers. Apple recently added a fingerprint sensor
that makes it faster to unlock your phone. Some companies are trying to
change how you interact with your phone, such as Apple and Google,
which are pushing voice-activated interfaces like Siri and Google Voice.
And now there are curved displays.
LG says its technology
works because the panels are built not on glass, but on plastic
substrates. Also called wafers, substrates are thin slices of material
that act as semiconductors.
The new LG display will curve in from top to bottom.
So, other than the "gee whiz" factor, what are the advantages of a curved or flexible screen for smartphone owners?
To start, a flexible
display is thinner and lighter than a glass display. In a field where
companies (Apple chief among them) brag about being a fraction of an
inch or a few millimeters thinner than the competition, that's
apparently an issue.
LG and others also market the screens as unbreakable.
It's not entirely clear
what the practical benefits are of a curved, concave 6-inch screen,
beyond the novelty of having a curved screen. Samsung has said that a
curved screen would have more viewing space in the same footprint.
There are already curved
TVs on the market that use similar technology. They take advantage of
the flexible OLED displays and offer a screen that curves in towards the
viewer on the left and right sides, supposedly for a more immersive
visual experience. The effect won't work the same way on a small 6-inch
screen, though. The TV panels are stuck in their curved position
permanently and cannot actually be re-bent, so the flexibility is gone.
The other big mobile
trend that has been bubbling up over the past year is wearable
peripheral devices that connect to your smartphone, like smart glasses
and watches. If LG or Samsung gets the flexible display technology
right, it could prove extremely useful in the new wave of small screens
that the tech industry is betting we'll wear on our bodies in the coming
years.
The bulky and poorly received Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch, for example, could greatly benefit from a screen that molds to your wrist instead of the giant solid square it sports now.
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