A Samsung concept cell phone was shown off at Japan's Flat Panel Display show recently. Shown in a video (below), it looks oddly square, and if you didn't know it was a cell phone, you might think it a portable media player.

Watch the video, though, and you see the secret: the screen folds in half, revealing a cell phone with a more typical appearance, including a smaller screen.

The folding was even done while the device was on and the screen active. Hard to tell, but it looks like a touch screen with the typical call and hang up keys. Windows Mobile? Probably.

Something like this could create a way for OEMs to expand screen real estate still further than even a touch screen device (iPhone) or one with a slider keyboard (G1) can allow.

On the one hand, we hate going through multiple actions to use my cell phone. That's one reason I eschew slider keyboards of any type (though we tried them, before realizing we hated them). Of course, perhaps the larger unfolded screen could be used for web browsing or viewing media.

Watch the video: