When LG left the smartphone market, quite a number of strange devices were left behind. While some, like the Wing, made it to consumers, others did not. The strangest of these would have to be their rollable phone concept; a device which would expand by unrolling a portion of the screen like a scroll. This never made it to market, but one managed to make its way to [JerryRigEverything’s] workbench, and we are fortunate enough to see the insides of this strange device.
There are a few interesting tidbits about the device before even entering the device. Very clearly this phone was ready to be sold, with a tidy user interface for expanding the display, and even animated wallpapers which expand with it. The display, when rolled onto the back of the device, sits behind a glass cover to keep it protected from debris, and can be used to take selfies with the larger sensors of the rear facing cameras. You can also see a bit of the track that the screen rolls on, hinting at what lies inside.
One doesn’t have to get far into a teardown of this phone to find more. A tiny brush hides in the curved corner of the screen rolling mechanism, to keep debris out of the pocket the screen sits inside. This also gives a better look at the aforementioned track system, which guides the display around the corner and keeps it stable and secure.
Further inside, you can see the mechanism which allow the phone to unfurl. Two rather small, but powerful DC motors resting a rack and pinion move the surprisingly strong phone to its full sized state. A number of spring loaded arms provide stability to the mechanism, preventing racking. The mechanism is surprisingly strong, able to push a number of books out of its way. However, if its movement is resisted, it will display a warning that you might damage the phone.
Tearing down a phone that doesn’t exist is not terribly useful, so the focus was very much on the mechanism, with no detours or destructive disassembly. However, if destructive reverse engineering is what your here for, make sure to check out this teardown of a smart LEGO brick next!
Someday this display tech will get so cheap as to be used as labels on fast food containers and the litter would be worth hacking? Imagine the racks of drinks at a squishy mart all blinking sexy models chugging the drink.
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephen talks about this exact thing. Essentially smart paper used to wrap everything from gifts to burgers. Dystopian to say the least.
This display was also in the oppo find x 2021, did everyone forget about that phone?
Shades of the “Global” from the SF series Earth:Final Conflict of the late 1990’s.
oh the tumlonds, ye have not asked the cindnod for permission to speak of such acts
Well, we did go from tablets to scrolls a long time ago….as well.
I like the idea of a sheel screen that wraps back into a rod….a bit like the SPACE 1999 Comlock.
Perfect name for a scroll type display:
M-BRANE
I saw this way back in the late 60’s.
It was Mr Woopee (the professor) with his 3DBB.
For those doubters amongst us, it was in a cartoon. Can’t remember the name of the series3DBB being a 3 Dimensional Black Board.
Tennessee Tuxedo
Huh. I didn’t realize LG had exited the market. Over a decade ago, they built the very last side-slider phone model available on Sprint’s network, before everything went touchslab.
That phone died on me when the ribbon cable (which was like 50 hair-thin wires) that connected the keyboard half to the screen half tore right across 70% of the pins, after one too many keyboard slides flexed them to the breaking point. Which doesn’t give me a lot of confidence regarding the durability of this mechanism, if the phone had been released.
If this comment gets approved, I accidentally replied instead of a new comment
I’d rather not hear Ye, tbh. Good think the UK banned him.