Lenovo’s Rollable Concept Screen Seems Almost Like Magic
We’ve seen a lot of crazes come and go in the tech world. But one new development has us seriously excited here at The Next Web: rollable displays.
Yes, that’s right – displays that can be rolled up like a scroll. AndLenovo’s new concept design for just such a device is finally starting to make this long-held dream a reality.
At first glance, the Rollable Concept Screen (or “RCS”) looks like a normal, if slightly chunky, smartphone. But it’s what’s inside that counts – and in this case, that’s a flexible OLED display that can be extended to give you a full tablet-sized screen.
It’s not just the size that’s impressive, either. The RCS also has some nifty features that make it ideal for gaming and other demanding applications.
For starters, the phone uses a special “polarity switch” technology to change the orientation of the display from portrait to landscape mode without having to rotate the device itself. This means you can play games in landscape mode without having to hold the phone sideways.
The RCS also comes with a built-in “haptic troller” that provides haptic feedback when you touch the screen. This allows you to “feel” your way around the interface and provides a level of immersion that is currently unmatched by any other smartphone on the market.
Perhaps most impressively, the RCS is also designed to be “future proof”, with an upgrade path that will allow it to take advantage of advances in display technology. This means that, as OLED displays become thinner and more flexible, the RCS will be able to take advantage of these new developments.
It’s clear that the RCS is a very exciting piece of technology. But what does it mean for the future of smartphones?
The most obvious implication is that we could see a new generation of devices with much larger screens. The RCS concept phone has a 6.2-inch display, but there’s no reason why this couldn’t be extended to 7 or 8 inches.
We could also see a new wave of gaming-centric smartphones that make use of the RCS’s unique features. The haptic troller, in particular, could open up a whole new world of mobile gaming experiences.
But the most important implication of the RCS is that it shows that the smartphone market is still innovate and open to new ideas. In an era where it often feels like every new phone is just a minor iteration of an existing design, the RCS is a breath of fresh air.
It’s still early days for the RCS, and it remains to be seen whether it will ever make it to market. But if Lenovo can turn this concept into a reality, it could change the smartphone landscape forever.
