By now we are used to foldable smartphones and even rollable ones are coming. LG is now even working on a stretchable screen.
LG used to make smartphones, but stopped doing so. Today, you know the company mostly from televisions and home appliances, but it also makes smartphone screens for other companies.
Often these are ordinary, straight screens like we are used to on a smartphone. Now, however, LG is working on a special feature that we might see on a phone in the future: a screen that you can stretch out.
LG’s unusual screen
Smartphones used to just have a rectangular screen, but today there are models you can fold, such as the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and Flip 6. Huawei even has the Mate XT, which you can fold twice.
At MWC this year, we even saw roll-out smartphones and Motorola showed off a bendable phone that you can wear as an armband. Although these devices are still concepts, they show the possibilities. In the same category, LG is now working on a stretchable smartphone.
(Image: LG)
That LG is working on a stretchable smartphone is nothing new. The company first showed a prototype in 2022. This model could be stretched 20 percent from its original size. Now the manufacturer has an improved design that can be stretched 50 percent. In addition, it could withstand 10,000 stretching motions.
LG’s new prototype measures 12 inches and can be stretched to 18 inches. Possible applications are in cars or the fire department, where the screen could display additional information about a fire or accident, for example.
Still steps to be made to apply an expandable screen in a smartphone
Of course, 12 inches is quite large for a smartphone, but in the future the size can probably be made smaller. Thus, it could become a competitor to both the regular and foldable smartphone.
Still, there is a major issue: durability really needs to improve. While 10,000 times stretching seems like a lot, that’s little compared to folding phones. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 can currently be folded 200,000 times. This means that, at 100 folds a day, you could use that phone for five years. With the LG screen, this durability would allow you to stretch your smartphone a maximum of five times a day.
Is that all? No, there is another challenge: pixel density. Right now, this screen has a pixel density of 100 pixels per inch. Compare that to the current iPhone 16, which has a density of 460 ppi. So that’s a big difference.
These figures show that LG’s model is mostly still a prototype that is under development. Although the manufacturer has already improved the screen quite a bit, more development is still needed for this technology to be used on a daily basis. Perhaps first as a tablet and later as a smartphone.
