We have seen a fair bit of display-related news in recent days. At the end of last week, Asus showcased numerous devices with OLED screens equipped / optional. Then, yesterday, HEXUS reported on Lenovo highlighting OLED panel options for its laptops as a reason to buy a new portable PC. Also yesterday, we reported on LG's interesting advance in next-gen foldable displays – with a promise to deliver tougher than ever folding screens, with minimal crease lines.
Samsung showcased another interesting OLED technology yesterday, during the third day of the Global Tech Korea 2021 show, at COEX, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Of particular note for cutting-edge tech enthusiasts was the first ever demonstration of Samsung's 13-inch stretchable display.
What use is a stretchable display, you might be asking? Well, the demonstration didn't have anyone pulling the display to be longer or wider, or wearing it as part of some device, rather it was seen deforming from its natural 2D planes into the third dimension. In Samsung's animated example, you could see 'lava flows' among ridges and valleys. The stretchable display deforms to give real physical depth to a map – provides topography to provide a better screen representation of what it depicts – and it can be animated.
According to the ETNews report from the Global Tech Korea 2021 show, Samsung's stretchable display showed excellent performance and provided a realistic representation of what it was supposed to depict in 3D.
While this is the first demo of this 13-inch stretchable OLED, back at SID 2017 Samsung showed off an ancestor of this – a 9-inch version. According to Chang-hee Lee, VP of Samsung Display, the new 13-inch screen is "improved significantly," breaking beyond the 5 per cent deform/flex it could previously manage. Lee went on to predict growing commercialisation possibilities for stretchable displays, as well as rollable and foldable ones.
