We're still not entirely sure how the average person would use a bendable display that you can roll up like a magazine, but LG has already started making them a reality.
Leading up to this year's Consumer Electronics Conference in Las Vegas, LG revealed a new photo of an 18-inch flexible display that can roll up (to some extent) rather than simply bend.
Now, we've seen something like this display before — LG announced it had first managed to create the prototype flexible display back in July of 2014 — but the latest photo and its presence at CES hints that the company hasn't given up on the cutting-edge tech.
Aside from the fact that it's 18 inches and OLED, the exact specifications of the rollable display are still unknown. And while it's certainly an interesting prototype, we're still left to guess as to what the final consumer form of such a display would look like, and how it would be designed to be used in everyday life.
Flexible displays have been around in smaller packages — Apple is even looking into the technology — but companies are still hammering out both the technology behind bendable displays and compelling uses for the panels.
While most people wouldn't necessarily want to carry around a traditional newspaper-sized display, a rolled-up version could be easily stowed. This opens up some interesting possibilities for digital artists or those looking for a larger display for personal presentations when on the road. It could also be used to make smartphone displays that are more durable and less likely to crack.
But the most likely scenario is that LG will incorporate what it learns from creating prototypes like these into its existing TV lineup. When LG first announced it had created a flexible display in 2014, the company said that it was "confident that by 2017, we will successfully develop an Ultra HD flexible and transparent OLED panel of more than 60 inches."
That doesn't rule out a consumer version of a rollable display you can stow away in your backpack, but expect to see the technology hit LG's bigger screens before it moves into the mobile realm.
