Skip to main content

New Samsung patents reveal stunning rollable phone designs

Samsung has reportedly filed patents for 10 new foldable phone designs. These include smartphones with rollable, scrollable, and slidable displays. The patents are representative of Samsung’s vision for the future of foldable phones. Patently Apple was the first to report about these new patents published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. Recently, 10 more patents were filed by Samsung, bringing the total to 20.

The Korean tech giant already dominates the foldable smartphone segment with its Fold and Flip series of smartphones. And these patents indicate that the brand is serious about taking its foldable game up a notch. Samsung may have plans to launch slideout foldable phones soon. The company showcased a multi-rollable phone prototype in May, adding further weight to its plans of launching a slideout-style phone. While patents don’t always translate into real products, they offer a peek behind the curtain of what could be coming in the future.

Related Videos
rollable phone sketch
Patently Apple

For these latest patents, there are a few things that stick out. One of the patents (seen above) shows a device with a standard smartphone-like body. However, one end extends to transform the device into a small tablet. It’s the same general idea of a handset like the Z Fold 4, but it achieves the phone/tablet hybrid with a different design.

A Samsung patent showing a rollable smartphone design.
Patently Apple

Another patent reveals what this kind of rollable would look like from the backside (above). Here, we see that the back is separated into two sections, with the rollable display connecting them in the middle. It looks like it could introduce a whole assortment of durability concerns, but it’s still exciting to see Samsung toying with other form factors like this.

SamMobile recently revealed a concept design of Samsung’s purported rollable display phone in collaboration with Jermaine Smit, popularly known as Concept Creator. The concept provides us with a representation of what Samsung’s future rollable phone could look like. In the picture, we can see a phone with a display that wraps around the rear panel. There’s a thick bar on the right-hand side of the display that appears to hold the rear camera module. We assume that the display would extend horizontally like one of the TCL’s rollable display concepts.

Rollable phone picture on a white background
Sammobile

Samsung is yet to announce any details of its upcoming slidable phones, and it’ll likely be a while before that changes. We’re expecting Samsung to continue its foldable family with the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 later this year. However, the launch of a slideout handset appears to still be a ways off.

Editors' Recommendations

Google just announced 9 new features for your Android phone and watch
Samsung Galaxy S23 showing Google Photos

Google has announced some big new features coming to Android and Wear OS devices during the Mobile World Congress 2023 event in Barcelona, Spain. These new features are beginning to roll out starting today, February 27, with others to come later.
New Android features available starting February 27

Google Drive users will now be able to do freehand annotation on Android phones and tablets. This means you are now able to use a stylus or your fingers to annotate PDFs directly in the Google Drive app on Android.

Read more
When is my phone getting Android 13? Google, Samsung, OnePlus, and more
Android 13 logo on a Google Pixel 6a.

Android 13 has been available for Android phones since late 2022, and it's a pretty minor update from Google. Well, we say minor, but that's only in comparison to the positively gargantuan number of changes that were in Android 12 — and in light of Google's policy of trickling out improvements to Android apps over the course of a year as soon as they're ready. Android 13 is more of a tune-up to the engine that powers your phone than anything else. But it's still one worth getting excited for.

Tablet and foldable owners will see the most benefits, and there will be some updates to Material You to improve Android's customizability. There really isn't much else to say about Android 13. It's a very under-the-hood update, and that trend appears to be continuing with the upcoming Android 14 as well.

Read more
Think twice before updating your Samsung phone to One UI 5.1
Samsung Galaxy S22 held in hand.

Samsung released the Android 13-based OneUI 5.1 update earlier this month, adding a bunch of new features and optimizing the software to a healthy extent. I've had a smooth experience so far on my Galaxy S23 Ultra, but there are a number of Samsung users who are having some nagging woes with the latest software update.
Notably, most of the bugs and quirks that we've spotted so far on the official Samsung Community forum, Twitter, and Reddit have been limited to Galaxy S22 series phones.

The most common problem that Galaxy S22 users have been raising online is battery drain. Now, feature updates often end up disrupting the battery optimization algorithms, which leads to higher than usual battery consumption, even if the device is idle. One UI 5.1 is proving to be one such update, and so far, we haven't heard of an official solution from Samsung.
https://twitter.com/sondesix/status/1625787879187419136
If your Samsung phone is aggressively sipping up the battery juice and giving you a headache, try some of the temporary solutions listed below until a corrective patch arrives:

Read more