Samsung exec spotted using a mysterious ‘stretchable’ smartphone

Samsung is developing another smartphone with a new form factor, which could have a stretchable display.

Samsung may have just teased its stretchable phone (Bloomberg)

Is Samsung working on a stretchable smartphone? Rumours of Samsung's new phone have revived after the company's vice chairman Lee Jae-young was seen with an unannounced phone at a meeting in southern Seoul.

According to a Korea Times report, the mysterious phone appeared slimmer than the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip foldable phones. Speculations are the device is an expandable smartphone that can stretch into a tablet form factor. The report adds the phone was showcased at private demos for clients at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January this year.

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, second from left, seen with a new phone (Korea Times)

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, second from left, seen with a new phone (Korea Times)

Even though details about the phone are scant at the moment, we can get some clue from Samsung's patent for new smartphone designs with the World Intellectual Property Office last year. The company had filed for a patent for a device with an expandable display that stretched out instead of folding. According to older reports, Samsung's rollable phone will have a plastic panel for the flexibility and could expand from a 6-inch design to an 8-inch tablet.

That said, before foldable phones became a mainstay, many smartphone companies have shown interest in building rollable or stretchable displays. For now, they have remained in concept stages with a few prototypes being showcased at the technology conferences. Considering the challenges faced by commercial foldable phones, the road for newer stretchable or rollable phones is unlikely to be easy.

A big takeaway, however, is that smartphone companies are finally looking to break away from the monotony of bar-style design. The likes of Samsung and LG, which have a prosperous display unit, maybe the first ones to showcase a commercial device. After all, rollable displays for other devices have existed for quite some time.