The outing of LG’s new ultra-bendable screen panels has prompted all manner of questions, though the most pressing of all is that of general appeal and benefit. What do the experts think? So chances are over the course of the weekend you’ll have seen LG showcasing its new rollable screens. And we’re not talking just […]
The outing of LG’s new ultra-bendable screen panels has prompted all manner of questions, though the most pressing of all is that of general appeal and benefit. What do the experts think?
So chances are over the course of the weekend you’ll have seen LG showcasing its new rollable screens. And we’re not talking just a bit bendy here either, but rather a 1,200 by 810 screen that can be fully rolled into a tube with a diameter of no more than 3cm.
LG has achieved what once seemed impossible by use of what it calls “high molecular substance-based polyimide film” which is basically a form of new-generation plastic. It’s a huge step forward from the debuted at CES earlier this year and they’ve now promised that a rollable TV with a 60-inch screen will be on the market by 2017.
Cool enough and guaranteed to rope in the world’s biggest tech-heads, but there is of course one glaring question that needs to be answered in the meantime; why?
It all well and good to go flexing your innovative muscles to show what you can do, but what’s the real appeal of a super-bendy TV?
Well, ask Stuff.tv deputy editor Stephen Graves and he’ll tell you it comes down to both durability and portability.
“Flexible screens are an exciting prospect,” he wrote.
“First off, they’re far more durable than conventional screens, meaning that we can expect to see bigger, better screens in, for example, airplanes,”
“They also create the potential for some completely new gadget designs,”
“Imagine a 10in (25cm) iPad that you can fold out into a 16in (40cm) screen – effectively doubling up as a small desktop computer or TV monitor.”
Over at Wired magazine, product editor Jeremy White spoke of the panels’ potential for marketing purposes.
“Being able to curve screens around complex retail display units or using the transparency to have the screen envelop the product itself on a stand would certainly be eye-catching,” he said.
“And of course this is all leading to flexible tablets as well, which will possibly be the most useful application of flexible screens to the average consumer.”
Of course to an extent it’s all by the by as even if LG does get rollable TVs on the market by 2017, you can bet it’ll be at least 2022 by the time most of us can afford to buy one.
Just in time for the Qatar World Cup, then!
