For those who thought that there would be no surprises at CES 2021 (Consumer Electronic Show), it actually happened. And what happened was the screen of a Chinese TCL device, which stretches and retracts in the hands of a woman in a video shown today (11). The novelty, already anticipated here at TecMundo, can be either a smartphone or a tablet.
The technology, also shown earlier in an LG teaser, during the speech by Jin-hong Kim, senior vice president of the company, was presented in a press release by TCL as a 6.7-inch portable AMOLED Rollable Display, a scrollable screen capable of being extended “to 7.8 inches with a simple touch of a finger”.
In the video, the head of “X-Lab” at TCL’s Industrial Design Center, Tiago Abreu, says that the functionality allows the device to go from smartphone to tablet, creating a totally new experience, by introducing an easily adaptable user interface , in addition to maintaining a thickness of 10 mm, which makes the device much thinner than current folding smartphones.
How will the rollers work?
In the presentation video of the TCL device, there is a moment when the model who is holding the device in her hands, uses it as a mirror to touch up her makeup, which leads one to believe that the surface of the back of the roller must be highly reflective.
Interviewed by the CNET portal, Stefan Streit, general manager of telephony marketing at TCL, said that the company will launch a smartphone with a flexible screen in 2021, although he has not clarified whether that device would be a foldable or the new scrollable.
Abreu also showed a new 17-inch printed OLED scroll display that can be “stretched” with a “100% color gamut”. The new technology, developed by CSOT (China Star Optoelectronic Technology), a subsidiary of TCL, may be, according to Abreu, “widely applied in flexible TVs, curved and foldable screens, as well as transparent commercial screens”.
