Came here to say this. Glad to see it already posted. I remember going to CES every year in the mid/late 00’s, and always badgering vendors about their roll up oled advances, bend radius, tensile strength, impact resistance, failure behavior, etc… after a few years it became clear to me the inherent fragility wasn’t going to make it practical for use cases I wanted. Guess I’ll get comfy and keep waiting for a display tech closer to a textile.
- the original Motorola StarTac "Star Trek Communicator" flip.
- the Danger Hiptop / Sidekick II rotating screen-over-keyboard
- the Motorola Droid slide-out keyboard
- the OnePlus 7Pro slide-out selfie-cam
Only that last one was motorized, but mine is still working. Holes and divots and islands and any other kind of screen interference is strictly inferior.
I loved my LG Phones, once they gave up on making phones I moved on to iOS. There was always something nice about each model. The LG G2 had an IR at the top of it, so it was a universal remote control, it doesn't age very well (wife still has hers, but you cannot see the screen), but it was at its lifetime / prime an amazing phone, the only change I would have done is add an SD card to it.
The G5 was another great phone, I believe it was designed to be a "modular phone" the bottom would come out letting you take the battery out, but it could also add an attachment to the phone, I never did buy an attachment though, and I think the last one I had was the G7.
I enjoyed their tablets too.
For some reason people cling to other brands, and slept on LG which made some really decent Android phones.
Both my G5 and G7 still turn on, I always say that by the release of the G7 (I forget the year) and possibly the G5, all decent quality smartphones got to the "good enough" stage of smartphones where it feels like I could own one for more than just 2 years before it shows signs of wear.
My G4 succumbed to this issue, and I was never able to revive it. I had some important documents and images there that I hadn't yet backed up to cloud that disappeared along with it. Still very sour about that. Other than that I enjoyed the phone, felt the dimensions were perfect and the camera was good for its time. But a defect of that nature is too serious to overlook so that was the last LG phone I ever owned.
My first LG ended up being my last LG because it was defective. Screen issues started popping up about a year after purchase. Sending it in repairs didn't accomplish anything. They probably returned the same phone to me untouched since the screen issues would go away if the phone wasn't used for a few weeks (but it would always come back). While other people had similar issues, LG never acknowledged the problem. It was not confidence inspiring.
In terms of what the phone delivered between software and hardware: it was a wonderful phone, but I lacked confidence in the brand to buy another.
In contrast, I have never had a defective phone from another company. Heck, I've only had two phones that ended up with cracked screens (and those were clearly my fault).
I had a similar experience. I had an LG V20 and I loved so much about it, especially the extra display at the top for notifications and such, and the really incredible DAC. But the glass, both on the screen and the camera on the back, broke 4 times over the two years I owned it. It's still the only phone I've ever broken glass on.
I will forever remember the V20.
I was at the mall shooting the shit with some friends in late 2016 waiting for the bus to bring us back to campus. We went to the Verizon store to look at the hottest new phones none of us could afford.
There was a V20, and someone had changed the little top screen to display the static text "dicks out for harambe"
I still have a photo of it kicking around here somewhere.
Which model was it? Curious, I know older LG models were not the best, but it felt to me that their last few sets were good enough for me. I am a power user for phones too. I use Discord, Slack, etc.
If I recall correctly, the G4. The issue was definitely more memorable than the model name: the image on the right half the screen would gradually compress vertically.
I liked my LG phones until I broke a screen and the cost to get a replacement was absurd because noone has them in stock.
I am still kind of shocked that the non-leading manufacturers haven't standardized on hardware. Every company besides Apple, google, and Samsung, should get together and create the beige box computer of cell phones, you can get influencers modding them, gamers overclocking, etc. all the things that keep the desktop market alive.
Instead of working together, every one of these companies acts like a greedy monopoly when they don't have monopolistic powers, or even any soft form of lock-in. Even if all they did was make phones that had easy to replace standardized screens and batteries. I could see them quickly making in-roads in corporate IT, and for kids.
But none of them want to work together, so we get iphones, a few higher end iphone ripoffs, and a bunch of low end iphone ripoffs.
edit:
I'm also mad that I lost my cat S61, and that the S62 looks like everything else.
edit 2:
I also hate that I switched to an iphone, and how comfortably easy it was to get full locked-in in two years.
LG got it right with the original Nexus 4, although battery life was a problem for all phones in that era. That phone had everything in a small form factor and it also came with a glass back that enabled the phone to fall off a perfectly level service, which was rectified with a little rubber piece.
The Nexus 4 should have lofted LG into the big league and the Nexus 4 owner should have graduated to a LG flagship. But this didn't happen, in part because people stayed with Google and moved on to what would become the Pixel series.
The problem with smartphones is that they are ultimately 'hand rectangles' and the average customer only needs adequate rather than super-deluxe. For a while it was possible to compete on features, battery life and mega-pixels, for people to queue outside phone retailers to be first with the new status-symbol-gadget. But times changed as the tech matured.
Most people couldn't care less about their phone specifications, so long as it works. Getting the latest and greatest phone makes as much sense as on insisting on the latest model of hand basin or the most hi-tech garden trowel. Who cares apart from reviewers or people with little going on in their lives.
> it also came with a glass back that enabled the phone to fall off a perfectly level service
I used to put mine on my wallet, and it took ages to figure out why I kept dropping it: the moment you set it down, it would start sliding _incredibly_ slowly.
I can't really speak for other Android users, but in those eras I either owned or was paying more attention to the HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Pixel, etc. phones because of their aftermarket OS support.
I really liked the G2 as well. It was the first phone (at least that I saw) to put the power and volume buttons on the back of the phone, where a ton of later phones would eventually start putting the fingerprint sensor.
I replaced LG's ROM with CyanogenMod back in the day, and it was such a smooth experience. The main reason I moved on from it was because I cracked the screen and the replacement screen I got (installed by a local repair shop) had a touch sensitivity issue along the top edge.
I think the article gets at it indirectly: a complex mechanism with multiple motors, tracks, arms, etc, substantially more complicated and thus more failure-prone than any folding phone ever and also substantially more expensive to make.
Additionally, the flexible screen is on the outside which will quickly get damaged since it is made of soft plastic. It's too fragile for something that lives in your pocket every day. All modern foldables have the folding screen on the inside to keep them protected, and a standard glass screen on the front.
The whole display is plastic, including the part on the front that doesn't wrap around. Yes the part behind the glass panel on the back would be protected, but the front of the phone wouldn't be.
"they" being Huawei, and their phone suffers from the same problem, the main display can be easily damaged by dust, dirt, or just your fingernails pressing into it. Notably Samsung's trifold kept the folding display entirely inside when folded, presumably to avoid this problem.
I don't really care to roll it up but why not an bit soft? To cup in my hand or fitted in my pocket would be nice instead of this brick. We can make lighter thinner phones if they don't need so much rigidity.
Phones get the crap kicked out of them. They need to be really robust.
I have an iPhone 17 Pro, and it's the first one that I've had (since the SE), that seems to have some "clunk" to it. I've already dropped it a couple of times, with no issues.
I want one of those "shake to flip" phones they had in Geostorm.
I've been waiting for a Global from Earth Final Conflict for nearly 2 decades.
https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/15743-global-link-prop...
Came here to say this. Glad to see it already posted. I remember going to CES every year in the mid/late 00’s, and always badgering vendors about their roll up oled advances, bend radius, tensile strength, impact resistance, failure behavior, etc… after a few years it became clear to me the inherent fragility wasn’t going to make it practical for use cases I wanted. Guess I’ll get comfy and keep waiting for a display tech closer to a textile.
Phone mechanisms which worked for me:
- the original Motorola StarTac "Star Trek Communicator" flip.
- the Danger Hiptop / Sidekick II rotating screen-over-keyboard
- the Motorola Droid slide-out keyboard
- the OnePlus 7Pro slide-out selfie-cam
Only that last one was motorized, but mine is still working. Holes and divots and islands and any other kind of screen interference is strictly inferior.
I liked the Startac and Razr formfactor.
The slide out cam on the One Plus 7 Pro was exceptional. I still miss it sometimes.
I loved my LG Phones, once they gave up on making phones I moved on to iOS. There was always something nice about each model. The LG G2 had an IR at the top of it, so it was a universal remote control, it doesn't age very well (wife still has hers, but you cannot see the screen), but it was at its lifetime / prime an amazing phone, the only change I would have done is add an SD card to it.
The G5 was another great phone, I believe it was designed to be a "modular phone" the bottom would come out letting you take the battery out, but it could also add an attachment to the phone, I never did buy an attachment though, and I think the last one I had was the G7.
I enjoyed their tablets too.
For some reason people cling to other brands, and slept on LG which made some really decent Android phones.
Both my G5 and G7 still turn on, I always say that by the release of the G7 (I forget the year) and possibly the G5, all decent quality smartphones got to the "good enough" stage of smartphones where it feels like I could own one for more than just 2 years before it shows signs of wear.
LG never really recovered after releasing several phones with bootlooping issues between 2015-16: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_smartphone_bootloop_issues
Plus their software support was poor, even for the era.
My G4 succumbed to this issue, and I was never able to revive it. I had some important documents and images there that I hadn't yet backed up to cloud that disappeared along with it. Still very sour about that. Other than that I enjoyed the phone, felt the dimensions were perfect and the camera was good for its time. But a defect of that nature is too serious to overlook so that was the last LG phone I ever owned.
At least they gave us https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbiEESkyaeM
My first LG ended up being my last LG because it was defective. Screen issues started popping up about a year after purchase. Sending it in repairs didn't accomplish anything. They probably returned the same phone to me untouched since the screen issues would go away if the phone wasn't used for a few weeks (but it would always come back). While other people had similar issues, LG never acknowledged the problem. It was not confidence inspiring.
In terms of what the phone delivered between software and hardware: it was a wonderful phone, but I lacked confidence in the brand to buy another.
In contrast, I have never had a defective phone from another company. Heck, I've only had two phones that ended up with cracked screens (and those were clearly my fault).
I had a similar experience. I had an LG V20 and I loved so much about it, especially the extra display at the top for notifications and such, and the really incredible DAC. But the glass, both on the screen and the camera on the back, broke 4 times over the two years I owned it. It's still the only phone I've ever broken glass on.
I will forever remember the V20. I was at the mall shooting the shit with some friends in late 2016 waiting for the bus to bring us back to campus. We went to the Verizon store to look at the hottest new phones none of us could afford. There was a V20, and someone had changed the little top screen to display the static text "dicks out for harambe"
I still have a photo of it kicking around here somewhere.
My wife had that one, her screen cracked after she dropped it... after she sneezed lol! I was there, I wouldn't of believed it otherwise.
It was a nice phone. The G7 was peak LG phones.
Which model was it? Curious, I know older LG models were not the best, but it felt to me that their last few sets were good enough for me. I am a power user for phones too. I use Discord, Slack, etc.
If I recall correctly, the G4. The issue was definitely more memorable than the model name: the image on the right half the screen would gradually compress vertically.
I liked my LG phones until I broke a screen and the cost to get a replacement was absurd because noone has them in stock.
I am still kind of shocked that the non-leading manufacturers haven't standardized on hardware. Every company besides Apple, google, and Samsung, should get together and create the beige box computer of cell phones, you can get influencers modding them, gamers overclocking, etc. all the things that keep the desktop market alive.
Instead of working together, every one of these companies acts like a greedy monopoly when they don't have monopolistic powers, or even any soft form of lock-in. Even if all they did was make phones that had easy to replace standardized screens and batteries. I could see them quickly making in-roads in corporate IT, and for kids.
But none of them want to work together, so we get iphones, a few higher end iphone ripoffs, and a bunch of low end iphone ripoffs.
edit: I'm also mad that I lost my cat S61, and that the S62 looks like everything else.
edit 2: I also hate that I switched to an iphone, and how comfortably easy it was to get full locked-in in two years.
LG got it right with the original Nexus 4, although battery life was a problem for all phones in that era. That phone had everything in a small form factor and it also came with a glass back that enabled the phone to fall off a perfectly level service, which was rectified with a little rubber piece.
The Nexus 4 should have lofted LG into the big league and the Nexus 4 owner should have graduated to a LG flagship. But this didn't happen, in part because people stayed with Google and moved on to what would become the Pixel series.
The problem with smartphones is that they are ultimately 'hand rectangles' and the average customer only needs adequate rather than super-deluxe. For a while it was possible to compete on features, battery life and mega-pixels, for people to queue outside phone retailers to be first with the new status-symbol-gadget. But times changed as the tech matured.
Most people couldn't care less about their phone specifications, so long as it works. Getting the latest and greatest phone makes as much sense as on insisting on the latest model of hand basin or the most hi-tech garden trowel. Who cares apart from reviewers or people with little going on in their lives.
> it also came with a glass back that enabled the phone to fall off a perfectly level service
I used to put mine on my wallet, and it took ages to figure out why I kept dropping it: the moment you set it down, it would start sliding _incredibly_ slowly.
I can't really speak for other Android users, but in those eras I either owned or was paying more attention to the HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Pixel, etc. phones because of their aftermarket OS support.
I really liked the G2 as well. It was the first phone (at least that I saw) to put the power and volume buttons on the back of the phone, where a ton of later phones would eventually start putting the fingerprint sensor.
I replaced LG's ROM with CyanogenMod back in the day, and it was such a smooth experience. The main reason I moved on from it was because I cracked the screen and the replacement screen I got (installed by a local repair shop) had a touch sensitivity issue along the top edge.
Interesting video, but it didn't tell me why rollable phones aren't a thing. It doesn't appear any more flawed than the foldable concept.
The impression I got was "too many parts, too much to go wrong, too expensive to build".
It doesn't rule out that other people might have better ideas, but it does suggest why LG decided it wasn't worth it.
I think the article gets at it indirectly: a complex mechanism with multiple motors, tracks, arms, etc, substantially more complicated and thus more failure-prone than any folding phone ever and also substantially more expensive to make.
Additionally, the flexible screen is on the outside which will quickly get damaged since it is made of soft plastic. It's too fragile for something that lives in your pocket every day. All modern foldables have the folding screen on the inside to keep them protected, and a standard glass screen on the front.
It slides behind a glass panel on the back, so I don't think that's true.
The whole display is plastic, including the part on the front that doesn't wrap around. Yes the part behind the glass panel on the back would be protected, but the front of the phone wouldn't be.
Yet they still make trifold phones where one of the folds is on the outer side...
"they" being Huawei, and their phone suffers from the same problem, the main display can be easily damaged by dust, dirt, or just your fingernails pressing into it. Notably Samsung's trifold kept the folding display entirely inside when folded, presumably to avoid this problem.
I don't really care to roll it up but why not an bit soft? To cup in my hand or fitted in my pocket would be nice instead of this brick. We can make lighter thinner phones if they don't need so much rigidity.
The batteries have to be rigid. That's the problem at the moment.
Direct link to video: https://youtu.be/vDMpANNGND4
The site also puts two non-youtube video ads in front of the youtube video so you can't just watch it.
Those are YouTube ads. YouTube shows more ads in embedded videos than when watched on YouTube itself.
https://citl.news.niu.edu/2024/07/08/upcoming-changes-to-you...
Huh. I didn't get those ads.
But it (looking at the demo innards) doesn't add much of anything you wouldn't get from watching one expand and comparing that to opening a foldable?
That was too delicate for everyday use.
Phones get the crap kicked out of them. They need to be really robust.
I have an iPhone 17 Pro, and it's the first one that I've had (since the SE), that seems to have some "clunk" to it. I've already dropped it a couple of times, with no issues.
I want one of those "shake to flip" phones they had in Geostorm.
Yeah, one trip to the beach, and it's all seized up/scratched.
Now roll me a 27” screen on my laptop and a 13” on my phone
Lenovo has a laptop with a rolling screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GsJi1KvHhA