Truly Flexible Displays Will Reinvent Smartphones

One of the things I learned early in my career is that if you want to get a glimpse of the future, you need to go to technology trade shows that are focused on components and deeply entrenched in the world of engineering. That’s where you see the technology that will likely show up in consumer gadgets two to three years down the line.

- Tim Bajarin

One such show is the Society for Information Displays (SID) conference, which took place recently in Los Angeles. Dedicated to the world of display technology, SID showcases all types of screens, including next-generation OLEDs for TVs and laptops, as well as the star of this year’s show: flexible and even rollable displays.

Visionox kicked off the event with a keynote that highlighted its foldable display in a video, but I did not see an actual model in its booth. On the other hand, BOE, one of the largest makers of displays in China, showed off two types of mobile devices with working flexible displays. A smartphone with a display surface of close to 9 inches folded completely in the center, and even in that folded position, the image and videos worked flawlessly.

The second phone it showed had an actual bendable screen. The 5.5-inch screen folded in half to make a smaller device that would be easier to carry (in photo below).