Samsung Patent Shows Rollable Display That Tucks Inside A Smartphone Chassis

Samsung rushed to be the first to market with a folding smartphone, and the high-profile failure of the Galaxy Fold highlighted the perils of rushing to market. The device failed in the hands of reviewers, and it's still unclear when the Fold might launch.

Samsung is looking down the road and sees devices with folding screens as the future. A new patent application has turned up that shows something completely different with a smartphone that has a screen that rolls up inside the phone body. The patent line art shows a device that has a traditional bar-style smartphone design.

Rather than having a screen that folds in the middle as the Galaxy Fold did, the patent shows a device that has a screen that rolls up inside the body by wrapping around two internal rollers. The thicker bottom area of the smartphone has two rollers inside that the screen appears to wrap around once each.

The user of the device can grasp the top section of the phone and extend it to make the screen taller. The form factor isn't all that appealing when held in portrait mode, but when expanded in landscape mode users would have significantly more screen space. It's still a strange form factor; the Galaxy Fold form factor seems more usable. There is no guarantee that the patent will ever result in a device that consumers can buy. If the Galaxy Fold failure has taught us anything, it's that folding screen devices aren't exactly ready for prime time just yet.