Samsung Flexible OLED Display Foreshadows Rollable Tablets And Smartphones

It feels like we've been hearing about bendable displays for eons, although more accurately, it was close to a decade ago that we began to be teased about them at trade events like CES. It's a little surprising,that in 2016, most of our devices still use traditional rigid displays in lieu of those that would give us vastly improved durability.

This is something that could finally be changing, though, as companies like Samsung are showing off their most advanced designs at SID's Display Week 2016, which is ending today in San Francisco.

When bendable displays as a concept first hit the scene, one of the most popular use cases was with our smartphones. Today, though, there are many more options available, such as flexible displays in our vehicles, as well as in our VR headsets.

At Display Week 2016, Samsung is showing off a 5.7-inch bendable AMOLED that could be fitted to a smartphone. Despite its flexibility, the screen comes in at a mere 0.3mm thick, and weighs just 5 grams. It also supports "10 radius of curvature", meaning that it can be rolled up without issue to create a circle with a radius of 10mm. 

The fact that the display can be rolled up so tightly is further proof of why it'd be great to see these flexible displays become commonplace, because shattered displays could become a thing of the past. With bendable displays, we might just have to worry about the occasional ding and dent from whatever debris life throws at you.

It's not just with smartphones that these displays could prove useful. Because of the extreme flexibility, a company could create a tablet that looks little different from a thick pen that has its screen unrolled from its inside (presuming a tight bend will never become permanent). Now that's a futuristic thought.