The era of gadgets with flexible screens is nearly upon us, at least it will be if LG and Samsung both have their way, as the rival companies are battling it out to become the first ones to put a flexy phone on sale. While LG has been showing off a 5-inch version of its flexible display at a trade show this week, a leaked picture showing a possible design concept may have pre-empted Samsung’s plans for a flexible tablet.
The picture you see above was sent to MobiLeaks.nl, and shows a large tablet with a built-in stand, however the clever part is the stand is part of the tablet’s chassis, and the screen bends when it’s flipped out. It’s certainly the most logical use of flexible screen tech at the moment, as the large base could contain all of the major components, while the batteries could still be positioned behind the screen.
A series of specifications also came with the rendered image, claiming the screen measures 10.1-inches and is 1080p AMOLED flexible panel. The processor is said to be one of Samsung’s eight-core Exynos 5 Octa chips, and could be accompanied by 2GB of RAM, 32GB of memory, and a 3-megapixel forward facing camera. A rear camera hasn’t been mentioned and isn’t visible in the pictures.
So, is it real? Who knows, but as is pointed out in the report, it does closely match a series of patents filed by Samsung related to flexible screen tablets; however this doesn’t mean the image is anything more than a very good artist’s impression. Also, while it may look cool, we’re struggling to see the point of bending the screen in this way. The horizontal section of the display looks too small to be used for a keyboard or gaming controls, making it dead space aside from access to shortcuts.
Samsung briefly talked about its mysterious YOUM flexible screen hardware during CES, but it’s LG who has been making the most noise about a device with a flexible screen recently, saying it has every intention of shipping its first batch of flexy displays later this year. The rumor is, one could end up being the Optimus G2’s most unique feature when it’s launched in late 2013. We’ll have to wait and see if Samsung responds with the tablet seen here.
