Samsung To Unveil Foldable Smartphone While LG Makes Transparent Display For 2016

As bendable smartphones have become the trend these days, Samsung plans to unveil a couple of bendable smartphones by 2016. Samsung Electronics announced its mid-long term strategies for smartphones at the Samsung Investor Forum 2014 in New York on Nov. 17 (local time), where 200 analysts were invited.

"We will be able to supply products with foldable displays to customer companies by the end of next year," said Lee Chang-hoon, vice president of the business strategic team at Samsung Display, during the event.

The Korean tech giant revealed two types of flexible displays at the event - a 10-inch flexible display for tablet PCs with a 5mm bending radius, and a 5.5 inch display for smartphones. The 10-inch full-HD flexible display can be folded twice and has a 1080p resolution. The 5.5 inch wide QXGA (1600x2560 pixel) display can be folded once.

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Samsung Display is planning to develop a new model with a 1R curvature rate. 1R refers to a 1 mm bending radius, indicating that the display can be folded like paper. The curved rate of the display used in the recently-introduced Galaxy Note Edge is 7R. Foldable smartphones are likely to put a battery in the unbendable area, which will be wired to the other side of the phone.

In the meanwhile, LG seems to focus more on transparent display technologies. Transparent panels are currently used in commercial or fighter aircrafts, heads-up displays for vehicles, billboards etc. Aside from flexible and transparent display technology, a previously leaked LG roadmap revealed that the company will also join the foldable and rollable display.