this phone is not normal this tablet not
normal but maybe we should change that because the fact that designs like this
and this are normal doesn't mean that they're the best that is why Samsung
display sponsored this video to show you how their latest folding and expanding
screen designs could make your next device less normal but better suited to
how you want to use it and we'll be giving you guys all the facts you need
to tell which ones are gimmicky solutions looking for a problem and
which ones are so exciting that you are going to want them in your next device
we're starting with a design they call the flex G I think because of how it
looks in profile view folded it's about the girth of a late 2000s era flip phone
but folded open and it becomes a shockingly slim 7.2 inch AMOLED display
with an accompanying stylus at least on
this prototype that's you gotta remember Guys these are not early units of
upcoming Samsung Electronics products these are Concepts from Samsung display
a completely different company now some of these proofs of concept could appear
in Samsung branded devices but they're just as likely to show up in devices
from companies that you might traditionally think of as Samsung's
competitors this one is impressively
thin which helps it remain nicely compact when it's folded I'm not sure if
I'm personally convinced of this form factor but if one of Samsung's Partners
wants to go forward who knows and that's because as a Samsung fold user I know
that the extra work of opening one of these devices not just me towards using
it closed and I'm not exaggerating here about 80 percent of the time so for me
to buy into a flex g style phone it would need to have an outer screen for
me to shoot off text messages from since typing on any screen wider than a couple
of inches means really long travel distances for your thumbs
what's cool though is that when we brought up the possibility of adding an
external display to it the response was and I kid you not why not
I mean leave it to a display company to say oh you want more displays well no
problem sir next up is the flex G tablet concept and
I think this design makes a lot of sense I love how the screen is fully protected
when it's not in use and I love how small it packs up this is like sci-fi
guys a 12.4 inch tablet that can be
folded up and packed into a purse I mean it's easy to forget how much our clothes
and our accessories are impacted by our devices like we take for granted that we
need a backpack now or at the very least a messenger bag to
hold on to our laptops and our tablets but if these go mainstream maybe it'll
be the Catalyst we need to finally bring the fanny pack back
next up there's the flexess style where my opinions are actually kind of flipped
with this config you always end up with an outer screen which I think is
probably not that useful on a tablet though it could be good for typing or
reading but on a phone well now you've got a single screen doing everything
whether the device is open or not I like this a lot and check out how awesome it
is to close with one hand like how could you do this without thinking later
peasants future man has places to be slip slip flip see you later and you'll
definitely feel like you're in the future when you see Samsung displays expanding screens these are exactly as
trippy to look at in person as they are on camera they have a couple of displays
that are motorized but the prototypes here are manual requiring very little
but not too little Force to manipulate them the idea is simple want a couple
extra inches for some extra tools just pull the screen apart want to get rid of
those pesky black bars and watch the content at its native aspect ratio push
it back together they even have Concepts that can both expand and fold
as mind-bending in sci-fi as this Tech is though there are a couple of things
to keep in mind number one these demos are a little more slick than what I
would imagine real software is going to look like especially at first I mean yes
operating systems like say Android are designed to be responsive but that
doesn't mean that the developer of the app you're using has implemented a way
to thoughtfully use extra real estate that you randomly stretch out the phone
into and even if they have there's a good chance that the UI is going to bug
out for a second before it adapts similar to how our phones stutter when
they're rotated between portrait and landscape which has been a feature for over a decade and yet it still happens
second the expansion is made possible by a slide out mechanism that does make the
device thicker it's a thing not only that but the expanded area of the screen
is a bit warped and sloped compared to the more stable Parts at least for now
it should be noted that this was a non-issue when we were looking at it
directly but it is something that you have to consider if say you're sitting
on a plane and you want to prop it up in between the two of you and enjoy a movie
together with your seat mate I think the main reason these things are worth
noting here is because I'm still trying to figure out if an expanding or a slide
out display makes sense on principle if the screen can be bigger won't people
just want that extra space all the time and if you can fold the display wouldn't
be better to just whip it out rather than stretch it out like like no really
I'm actually just asking you guys let me
and let Samsung display know how you imagine using these displays in the
future in the comments below there's a good chance pretty much a 100 chance
that someone at Samsung display or maybe more importantly their Partners is going
to see your ideas and they could make their way into your hands in the future
back in folding land here's one that's a bit confusing at first the flex in and
out is like my Galaxy Z fold except
after it's open you can just keep on
opening it why you may ask that's exactly what we
asked and the answer was that there's no
new thing that this really allows you to do but you can do all of the regular
stuff that you could do with something like a z-fold with less
see unlike my daily driver this concept has no second external screen but you
could still use it one-handed and fold it over so maybe you have it fully open
when it's in your pocket like at a convenience mode or fully closed when
it's anywhere else and it could be in protected mode it also only needs one
camera instead of five like mine but still easily allows you to take selfies
or um elsies by flipping the device around
so I am excited by how bendable this screen is because it could be the
concept that brings folding Foams like this to more mainstream prices
I can't say this one looks like it'll come into the mainstream price though
the flex note is basically a ginormous
17 inch tablet that in theory you could prop up and use like a laptop it's a
head turner for sure but I gotta admit that on-screen keyboards are a bit of a
turn off for me so I personally wouldn't be too interested in this concept as it
is but it if it has inputs that allowed me
to use it as a foldable portable monitor whoa now it's getting cool maybe I'm
just lacking an imagination though so if you guys can think of another way that
this form factor would change your life you gotta let us know down below
speaking of external monitors they did actually have one monitor on display it
doesn't fold but the OLED color performance and Pencil Thin form factor
still made it worth including here not everything Samsung display showed was
focused on mobile devices though the digital cockpit showed off a concept for
what a future car absolutely full of screens could look like this one in the
front is particularly cool because like the xenion flex monitor that we saw
recently it can be curved or flattened depending on the driver's preference
finally we have a gaming concept that I think is way more compelling than you
might at first realize we've seen dual screen handhelds before and while I can
immediately imagine this being great for emulating said device the more
day-to-day useful thing about this one for me is the way it moves your eye line
as I noted in my recent ShortCircuit on the GPD Win 4 the display of which
slides up to reveal a keyboard having the screen higher than your hands does
wonders for ergonomics and as an added bonus the flip serves as a built-in
screen protector now anyone who's been a fan of small
phones over the years but has had to upgrade recently can tell you that the
market is moving towards bigger screens and that's awesome you know from a
certain perspective except when it isn't awesome not everyone has deep pocketed
Costco jeans and likewise not everyone has giant MKBHD hands so I think the
best thing about what Samsung display is creating here is the flexibility pun
intended to build devices that can serve a broader range of users without
compromise thanks again Samsung display for sponsoring this video and I think
even more importantly giving us real Hands-On time with these Concepts I'm
actually super jelly that James got to be the one up close and personal with
them don't miss any of the rest of our CES coverage by the way from the away
team or maybe already came I don't know when
this video is going up