Oppo X 2021: Oppo shows the rollable smartphone

Do we see the future of the smartphone here? Oppo presents the mobile phone with rollable display

Chinese smartphone makers are always good for a surprise, so it’s no surprise that Oppo today didn’t show a foldable smartphone, but a mobile phone with a roll-out display. Almost a rollable.

The concept smartphone presented has a flexible and horizontally extendable OLED display. And this is how it looks:

The display of the Oppo X 2021 is unrolled from the case on the left. A small motor moves the two halves of the smartphone.

As a user, you can freely adjust the display size to your needs, so that you are not limited to 6.7 inches or 7.4 inches, writes the technology portal Engadget.

The size of the smartphone is sufficient for WhatsApp and Co., but if you want to watch a video, the display can be extended. The video automatically adjusts to the size of the display and fills it, Engadget reports.

A small motor ensures that it is coiled or rolled up. The device essentially works as a motorized scroll. The flexible display is driven around a small roller motor so it can be stowed away in a hidden compartment, explains Engadget. Rolling has the advantage over folding that no crease can be seen on the display and the display size can be freely selected.

As mentioned at the beginning, the Oppo X 2021 rollable is a concept device, that is, not a model ready for the series that will soon be in stores. The smartphone has the sole purpose of demonstrating what is technically possible.

The first practical videos from journalists show how the device works in practice.

Oppo claims to have 122 patents on this concept, 12 of which on the rolling mechanism. “Thanks to the so-called warp rail lamination, the display panel should be flexible, but at the same time stable. For this purpose, a special steel is used as the high-performance material, on the surface of which a stripe pattern is engraved ”, writes the German technology portal Golem.

All good, but the prototype shown is likely to be relatively heavy and bulky and the question remains as to how durable a rollable display is.

Whether such a device will ever be sold and at what price remains to be seen. With the presentation of the prototype, Oppo is trying to find out for the first time if the idea will meet with approval. So far, Samsung and Huawei’s expensive folding devices are far from box office hits, Oppo is breaking new ground.

(was)