Consider this a preview of a preview. It’s an opportunity to take advantage of the brief lull in Sunday morning news before the deluge begins in full on Monday. Tomorrow is, after all, when Samsung will host its CES 2024 press conference alongside other big names like Sony and LG.
This weekend, however, the company is teasing a “new generation of products that can be folded inward and outward,” along with foldable and sliding “screen-sized” OLEDs. The first, appropriately, has been considered the “In&Out Flip”. The latter piece is a reference to the flip phone form factor and – one assumes – an attempt to distinguish the technology from a popular hamburger chain and a less popular 1997 Kevin Kline film.
Image Credits: Samsung
The company will offer more details on the technology in tomorrow’s presser, but from the sound of things, we’re in the proof-of-concept stage here. Often, these devices are a bit of an evolutionary dead end, but Samsung managed to kick off the foldable phone craze a few years ago, so stranger things have happened.
“In&Out Flip is a technology that can provide a new alternative for consumers who prefer bar-shaped smartphones due to the thickness of foldable products,” the company said in a statement. “When folded out, both the front and back of the product can be used as a display, creating a new user experience.”
The technology is essentially an attempt to reduce the need for separate external displays found in the current generation of foldable devices. Among other things, removing this secondary screen would limit the product’s profile.
When it comes to testing the technology, Samsung apparently used the device in temperatures ranging from -4 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The team dunked the screens in water, rubbed sand on them and bounced basketballs on their surface, which sounds like a pretty good time if I’m being honest.
A rolling display is also being shown in Vegas this week. The technology appears on the Rollable Flex, as well as the Flex Hybrid, the latter of which combines it with a sliding screen. Also at the event is an anonymous headphone case with a built-in display. There’s no word on when — or if — such products could hit the market, but I wouldn’t expect to see one at the company’s upcoming Galaxy S24 event.
