In April 2021, the ax fell: LG abandoned the smartphone market to focus on more profitable markets. The manufacturer sacrificed its first rollable phone, presented three months before the fatal announcement.
A few months before its abandonment of the smartphone marketLG had organized a virtual event for CES during which the manufacturer had quickly showed a rollable screen model, the LG Rollable. At the time, it was difficult to say whether it was a real product or special effects… And then the sector’s failure did not allow us to know the end of the story.
Too late for the LG Rollable
We can now safely say that this device does exist, and that its development has gone far enough. In fact, the video shared by the Checkout Tech channel shows a smartphone that seems to be operational, with a responsive Android system and above all, a screen that rolls up and down thanks to a motorized mechanism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFAmEO53yEY
The video is quite short, but it looks believable and authentic. There are too many reflections on the screen and other elements that are difficult to reproduce in post-production… The screen scrolls after touching an icon. As a reminder, the LG Rollable was to have a screen of 6.8 inches (1,080 x 2,428) rolled up, and 7.4 inches (1,500 x 2,428) unrolled. A smartphone that therefore turns into a small tablet, the promise of folding devices in a format that is perhaps easier to understand.
At the back, you can also see a camera block containing three sensors and a flash. The technical characteristics of these components are unknown. To see this device “in real life”, many will regret that LG did not go to the end of its idea because there was potential. Other manufacturers will take over, like Motorola, which should soon present a roll-up known under the code name “Felix”.