Sharp Demonstrates Foldable OLED Display for Smartphones
by Anton Shilov on April 12, 2019 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Displays
- Mobile
- Sharp
- OLED
- Foldable Smartphones
Sharp this week demonstrated its first foldable OLED display at a special event in Tokyo. At present, the device was demonstrated as a part of a smartphone prototype and right now the company is evaluating prospects of its commercialization.
Sharp’s 6.18-inch foldable OLED screen features a 2992x1440 resolution, a 19:9 aspect ratio, and can cover the DCI-P3 color gamut. The display is equipped with a foldable touch panel, and polarizer, so it can be installed on a smartphone or a similar device even today, assuming that an appropriate hinge as well as electronics have been developed as well.
Sharp is among a few makers of OLED displays which have publicly demonstrated their foldable OLED screens so far, so from technology point of view the company is among the leading players.
The manufacturer says that its foldable OLED displays were subjected to 300,000 of fold/unfold cycles (with a 3-mm radius) and survived them. Therefore, assuming that Sharp has tested enough screens, we can speculate that it looks like the technology is more or less robust already. That said, it is possible to expect its commercialization in the coming years.
Sharp, which returned to the global market of smartphones fairly recently, already produces its own curved 6.2-inch OLED displays for its flagship Aquos Zero handset launched in January. It remains to be seen though whether the company decides to commercialize its foldable 6.18-inch OLED screen with a 19:9 aspect ratio, or will prefer another form-factor.
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TristanSDX - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
OLED is best tech to make prototypes that will never go into mass production, because of burn-in or other issuesSirCanealot - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
Might say that's a tad pessimistic — we're getting foldable phones soon! I'll be surprised if the technology doesn't improve and become more mainstream in the next few years :)I do know how you feel though...
quiksilvr - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
Pixel shifting has made massive strides over the years. I had my S7 Edge for three years with no burn in and I YouTube quite a bit.mooninite - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
My wife's S8 has burn-in. 90% of her usage is Facebook so common areas like the notification bar at the top and the Facebook menu bar just below that are different colors when you switch apps.FullmetalTitan - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
Not every article that contains "OLED" needs someone to comment about burn in. Samsung has been using OLED panels on their galaxy series for a decade and I have never had one with burn in issuesinighthawki - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
Burn in is typically less of an issue on phones and mobile devices because there is typically very little fixed content on the screen. Contrast to devices like a desktop computer where you may have the windows taskbar with icons sitting on the screen unchanging for hours at a time day after day. It can actually be quite problematic.Destoya - Saturday, April 13, 2019 - link
Even on desktops with static content burn-in is very much overblown since it's primarily a problem when the pixels are near their max brightness. Displaying white spreadsheets, word docs, webpages, etc at that brightness in a office environment is blindingly bright.rocky12345 - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
First thing for me personally I do not want a foldable phone it is just something else to go wrong and break. Besides that didn't Apple unknowingly have the iphone 6 series bendable already way before this.../jokequiksilvr - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
Actually this makes the phone less likely to break because now the screen is 100% protected from the elements. Phones are less than 8 mm thick so 16 mm after folding (which is less than 3/4 of an inch) is very pocket-able.khanikun - Monday, April 15, 2019 - link
Eh? Have you not seen pictures of the Mate X? FlexPai? Xiaomi? Oppo? The phone designs fold and leave the screen 100% unprotected.This Sharp design, Samsung's design, and even Motorola's design would have the folding screen 100% protected, but if it has any other screens, that won't be. Like Samsung's, the folding screen is protected, but the 2nd screen isn't.
I personally prefer what Motorola wants to do with a folding Razr. Make the phone unfold to today's 5-6" screens. Sure, some ppl want their phone to unfold into a tablet, but I'm for a smaller phone. I'm all for a phone that's the size of a dollar bill, that I can put in my wallet, and fold it.