Fold It

The foldable phones are coming in 2018. No, not flip phones, folding phones. As in fold it up like a piece of paper:

“Around three to five tech companies are expected to mass produce foldable phones in 2018 globally. The devices will then grab around 20 percent of the total smartphone market here,” said Kang Chung-seok, Kolon Industries’ colorless polyimide division head, in an interview with The Korea Herald.

Currently, most tech companies including Samsung, LG, BOE, Xiaomi, Sony and even Apple are moving away from liquid-crystal displays to organic light-emitting diode displays. This is because OLED can be flexible, as opposed to rigid liquid-crystal displays, enabling panels to be curved, foldable and even rollable.

He predicted that the first foldable devices, which could possibly be released next year, will have a bend radius of 5 millimeters as opposed to market speculations of 1 millimeter.

Bend radius is the minimum radius something can be bent. The smaller the bend radius, the greater the material flexibility. When the bend radius is 1 millimeter, both sides of the panels can almost touched, as though they are completely folded.

“The bend radius of 1 millimeter is the most ideal but that may cause a safety issue. So, tech companies are likely to unveil the bend radius of 5 millimeters first and then gradually unveil devices with less bend radius,” Kang added.