What You Need To Know About Samsung Rollable Phones
Samsung as a mobile phone company has been able to stay in the leading pack over the past decade, especially with the creativity and brand authority of the galaxy series. In a decade that has seen the demise of many giants such as Nokia mobile, Blackberry, Ericsson mobile, and Motorola, Samsung has not only survived with innovation; they have evolved into one of the leading giants in the mobile tech space.
With a simple but user-friendly user interface, and batteries that last longer, Samsung now controls over 20% of the global mobile phone market. Not only that, despite the emergence of many new tech companies with cheaper options, Samsung is poised to be one of the future leaders in the industry.
Samsung’s evolutionary innovation has not just improved the looks and feels of their products; it has shown that they listen to the market and manage to appeal to the elite and the common man at the same time. They have a wide variety of products with superb camera quality, storage space, processing power, and crystal display which delivers on the promise of good value for money.
Are rollable phones here already?
With the speed of innovation in the mobile tech world, Samsung and other industry players have been making leaps after leaps into the future. From live streaming to teleconferencing, from OLED to QLED, from online gaming to virtual assistants, the race for the next big thing keeps heating up.
One of the latest of such big leaps is that of the evolution of foldable phones. The world’s very first foldable phone is the Royole FlexPai which was released for pre-order on October 31st, 2018. However, not to be outdone, Samsung replied with the Galaxy fold in February 2019.
Though the Royole FlexPai is officially the first, the Galaxy Fold was the first to make it into the US marketplace. Just four days later, Huawei countered with its very own foldable phone, the Huawei Mate X.
Since then, we have been treated to foldable phones such as the Motorola RAZR, Samsung Galaxy Z flip series, Huawei Mate XS, and the Fold n’ roll by TCL with varying degrees of success as they work on perfecting the new technology and with Samsung outmuscling the others with innovation after innovation.
From foldable to rollable
With every tech comes new challenges, and the foldable phones were are still far from perfect despite several upgrades. The problems include the air gaps created after folding; the creases that begin to appear on the screens after a while due to the rigors of folding and unfolding over time; and the screen fragility of the outward folding screens, just to mention a few.
The solution? Rollable phones!
According to both 91mobiles and LetsGo Digital, Samsung, Huawei, and even Apple have filed design patents for rollable phones (or at least what looks like it) with WIPO within 2020 and 2021. Never to be undone, Samsung now has the patent for a foldable and ro
llable phone is set to be released as soon as August 2022.
Do we have rollable phones in the market already?
As of the time of this report, rollable phones are still being tested and are largely still a proof of concept rather than ready products in the hands of users. Despite the Oppo X 2021 having the tag “2021” showing up at several exhibitions since 2020 and all the hype that surrounded the LG rollable, users are yet to have access to the technology.
Is it even possible?
With the existence of television sets like the OLED R rollable TV, LG has already shown that foldable screen technology is not only possible but marketable and sustainable. The real question should revolve around the possibility of moving that technology into mobile phones in a way that users all over the world would have access to it.
The Samsung Rollable Edge
Though the race to rollable mobile phones is still on with TLC and Huawei very much in the race, Samsung seems to have the edge on paper. Apart from the concept of a foldable and scrollable phone rolled into one, its other patents are clearer, showing more and more of its functionality in recent exhibitions.
Also, of the leading pack in the rollable screen race with larger market control, brand identity, and resources. The scales are tipped towards them with the withdrawal of LG from the mobile tech industry in April 2021, citing losses running into $4.5 Billion over the last 6 years of operation. Huawei, on the other hand, has had its products banned in the US markets and can no longer run the full Android OS, making their phones almost useless for general Android users.
With all of the resources of Samsung and the Android technology of Google behind Samsung, they look the favourite to crack the code to sustainable rollable mobile technology if nothing changes soon.
Release dates for Samsung Galaxy Rollable Phones
Though the concept of rollable phones looks and sounds amazing on paper, it is possible they will not be in the market any time soon. It is one thing to have the patent of a masterpiece; it is another thing entirely to have it in the hands of everyday users. Though there have been some indirect hints, there are no official release dates for any of the phones yet.
Samsung rollable phone possible price
As for the possible price, it is difficult to speculate as the prices will reflect not only the new rollable technology but also the other benefits and features such as the display, RAM, camera quality, battery life, processing power, and speed among other things.
However, we can make some inferences from the price of the foldable phones in the market right now, with the most successful of them, which is the Samsung Galaxy Fold 3, going for about $1,800. The Huawei Mate XS with better features, on the other hand, seems to be slightly more expensive, retailing at about $1650.
References:
- https://www.samsung.com/us/business/
- https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartphone-share/
- https://news.samsung.com/global/a-decade-in-the-making-how-samsung-foldables-are-defining-the-future-of-smartphone-innovation
- https://global.royole.com/us/flexpai
- https://consumer.huawei.com/en/phones/mate-x-s/
- https://nl.letsgodigital.org/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-unpacked/
- https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/samsung-galaxy-z-fold-3
- https://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_mate_xs-10098.php
Written by The Original PC Doctor on 19/2/2022.