TL;DR
- Samsung Display is showcasing a “Mobile Slidable” concept at MWC that expands from 5.1 to 6.7 inches.
- The phone slides out at the top to increase the screen size, but rotating to landscape allows for a longer horizontal display.
- It’s still under development, and past rollable demos from Samsung haven’t yet been adopted by flagships.
It’s easy to feel like phone manufacturers might have pushed foldable form factors about as far as most people are interested in exploring, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more room for innovation when it comes to expanding the viewable area on your device. In the same way that old-fashioned flip phones evolved into a single large display on the likes of the Galaxy Z Flip series, Samsung looks set to make the same leap with slide-open handsets, giving us an early glimpse of its new concept for a slidable display.
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The slidable display is “under development,” according to the Samsung Display exhibition at MWC in Barcelona, so we don’t yet no how long it might take this concept screen to reach your pocket. Still, it’s a fascinating take on expandable displays, especially for users who may not be too keen on foldables in general. The phone’s rails slide up to expand the device from the top, and the extra display area appears to roll out as you slide. Rotate it into landscape view, and you’d get a longer horizontal display.
The images above show the slidable display before and after expansion. Because it only slides out by just under two inches — at least in this concept version — the functionality might not be quite as apparent in those images as it is in the video at the top of the article.
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Samsung Display is showing a spec sheet for the concept under the heading “Samsung OLED Mobile Slidable.” It confirms that the panel expands from 5.1 inches in a 16:9 aspect ratio to 6.7 inches at 22:9 when fully extended, with a listed resolution of 1,080 x 2,640 FHD+ and a pixel density of 426ppi.
Just to illustrate the point that a screen concept doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see it imminently appear on an upcoming flagship, this isn’t the first time we have seen Samsung demonstrate a slidable screen on a phone. The OEM demonstrated a multi-rollable phone prototype, called the Flex Slidable, back in 2022. On that version, the screen could roll out at both the top and bottom of the phone with the press of a button, but it doesn’t seem that this translated into a markable device.
What do you think of the Mobile Slidable at MWC? Let us know in the comments!
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