Gaze at LG’s rollable phone that could have been in new hands-on video
For every new company likeNothing that launches its first phone, it feels like we lose one of the older players in the market, and back in 2021, LG felt compelled topull the plug on its smartphone businessfor a bunch of reasons — including some disappointinglylow sales. However, shuttering a multi-billion-dollar enterprise isn’t as simple as flipping a light switch, and the company ended up scrapping several in-development prototype phones in the process —selling some of that hardware to employeesfor dirt-cheap prices. Now, over a year later, one of the very cool-looking LG Rollable prototypes has resurfaced online to show its stuff.
Enthusiasts would remember that LG’s brief teaser of the Rollable at CES 2021 caused a sensation. Unlike foldable phones with a hinge, the device utilizes a scroll-like design, letting a section of the display roll up into the phone’s chassis when not in use. Although this design marvel didn’t make it to store shelves, the company sold surviving units to its employees, and one of them is seen in this hands-on video.
The video makes it clear that theLG Rollablenever made it past the prototype stage. The unit seen in the video (viaAndroid Authority) is remarkably slim and can be expanded horizontally using a toggle located in an edge toolbar. The Rollable also seems to have hardware sensors that unfurl the screen if the device is tugged and roll it back up if the expanded screen is gently squeezed.
As cool as the hardware is, the phone’s software seems pretty unfinished in the hands-on video. you may see that when the display expands, the space between the navigation bar buttons increases and the battery indicator in the top-right corner of the screen moves outward. However, when the phone rolls back up, only two spaced-out navigation bar buttons can be seen, and the battery indicator never returns to its original location — as though the user interface is stuck. It looks like there might not be Google Play Services here, although with Asphalt 9, Google Calendar, LG Pay, and some other Korean-labeled apps we haven’t identified, presumably this prototype hardware is still usable enough.
The LG Rollable is a technological marvel in itself, but the company staffers who bought the prototypes have absolutely no ongoing software support and are prohibited from ever selling the unique devices. While this was the last milestone in LG’s journey developing rollables, it isn’t the end of the road for the technology; BBK Electronics-owned Oppo also developed arollable conceptaround the same time as LG, so maybe all hope isn’t lost yet.
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