LG has already proven that rollable screens can work with its Signature OLED R rollable TV, and a smartphone with the tech is on the way this year too – simply called the LG Rollable.
The company has only teased the Rollable so far, but one of those teases included footage of the phone in action – so while we don’t know much about internal specs, we do have a good idea what the device will look like and the basics of how it will work.
Unfortunately, with LG re-assessing its entire mobile business we’ve also seen speculation that the Rollable might not launch at all, leavings its fate in doubt.
If it does arrive, the Rollable will be the second phone in the Explorer Project range, following the LG Wing, a phone that revolves to reveal a second screen.
When is the LG Rollable release date?
LG first teased the Rollable at the end of the Wing launch event in 2020, and the company confirmed to Nikkei Asia that it will launch the phone some time in 2021.
“Our management wanted to show that it is a real product, as there were many rumors around the rollable phone,” LG spokesman Ken Hong said in the wake of the phone’s CES tease. “As it is released at CES 2021, I can tell that it will be launched this year.”
One source optimistically predicted that it will launch in March 2021. This is via Korean publication The Elec, which says a different phone under the codename ‘Rainbow’ will arrive first in Q1, with the Rollable to follow in March.
Meanwhile another Korean blog says it will arrive ‘after September,’ which seems a more plausible time frame.
Is the LG Rollable going to come out?
There’s also the disappointing possibility that despite everything, the Rollable still might not launch at all. LG has told staff that it’s considering folding its smartphone business in 2021, a possibility we discuss on our Fast Charge podcast.
It’s not yet clear what impact that might have on the Rollable specifically, but a company spokesperson told The Korea Herald that detailed plans for the launch had not been decided, and that the company was “open to every possibility.”
More specifically, Yonhap News reports that LG told parts suppliers, including the display manufacturer BOE, that the project is “on hold,” and that they would be able to request compensation from LG for their development costs.
LG swiftly denied that report in a statement to The Verge. “I can firmly deny that any such decision on future mobile products has been finalized,” said a spokesperson – notably stopping short of insisting that the Rollable will launch in 2021 as planned.
Let’s end on a positive note though: in March 2021 the Rollable received Bluetooth SIG certification. This doesn’t really tell us anything about the phone, except that it’ll support Bluetooth 5.2, but it’s a process phones normally only go through on the way to release, suggesting LG does still have plans to bring the Rollable to market.
How much will the LG Rollable cost?
It’s unclear what the price will be for a phone like this considering there are none on the market yet.
You can, however, bet that it will be very expensive. We’ve seen the cost of foldable phones like the Motorola Razr 5G and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 at around £1,300 to £2,000 and a rollable phone could arguably fetch an even higher figure due to the complex nature of the technology.
LG may well be first to market and therefore set the benchmark. GSMArena references a now-deleted tweet claiming it will cost $2,560 in the US.
What are the LG Rollable specs?
This is also unknown at the moment, with LG only giving two brief glimpses of the device so far. The best look came right at the end of the LG CES 2021 stream, when LG released a brief clip of the Rollable…well, rolling:
The brief clip shows a large, square-ish display that rolls down into more typical smartphone dimensions while playing back a video.
There are no specific specs, but one report claims that the screen will be 6.8in when closed, at a resolution of 1080×2428; extending to 7.4in when open, at 1600×2428.
It does look like it will be similar to the Oppo X 2021 and TCL rollable concept devices. The Oppo X 2021 has a 6.7in display able to expand up to 7.4in, while the TCL version has a larger panel that expands to 7.8in.
Oppo says it has applied for 122 patents relating to the handset, with 12 specific to the scroll mechanism, so it will be interesting to see how LG has come at the problem. It helps that the company already has rollable TV tech, but scaling it down to phone size is a whole other matter.
LG has filed for several patents in the process of developing the Rollable, which give a good idea of the designs the company has considered. The most recent, via LetsGoDigital, is probably the best indication of what to expect from the final phone:
The design shows a rollable panel that extends out in one direction, similar to what we’ve seen in LG’s own video. There’s no sign of any buttons on the device – though don’t take that as a sign that the final phone would be buttonless – but it does feature a triple camera array on the rear, alongside a second rear display. Note that there’s no selfie camera on the front, which explains the need for the rear screen.
This patent is quite different to two older designs, both also shared online by LetsGoDigital. The first shows a panel that extends from the centre – interesting, but clearly not what has been seen in the video of the current device.
The second patent is arguably even wilder, extending from two separate central points, so that you can pull it out in either direction. Again, it’s a cool design, but definitely different to what LG has settled on.
We’ve got no idea what chipset, camera, or other specs LG will squeeze into the Rollable, but expect them to be fairly high-end, if not absolute top of the line.
