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Teardown of unreleased LG Rollable shows why rollable phones aren't a thing

arstechnica.com

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Re: Teardown of unreleased LG Rollable shows why rollable phones aren't a thing

#11

Post by giancarlostoro »

presbyterian wrote: post #7
II2II wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first LG ended up being my last LG because it was defective. Screen issues started popping up about a year after purchase. Sending it in repairs didn't accomplish anything. They probably returned the same phone to me untouched since the screen issues would go away if the phone wasn't used for a few weeks (but it would always come back). While other people had similar issues, LG never acknowledged the problem. It w…

I had a similar experience. I had an LG V20 and I loved so much about it, especially the extra display at the top for notifications and such, and the really incredible DAC. But the glass, both on the screen and the camera on the back, broke 4 times over the two years I owned it. It's still the only phone I've ever broken glass on.

My wife had that one, her screen cracked after she dropped it... after she sneezed lol! I was there, I wouldn't of believed it otherwise.

It was a nice phone. The G7 was peak LG phones.

Re: Teardown of unreleased LG Rollable shows why rollable phones aren't a thing

#12

Post by Uncle_Brumpus »

presbyterian wrote: post #7
II2II wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first LG ended up being my last LG because it was defective. Screen issues started popping up about a year after purchase. Sending it in repairs didn't accomplish anything. They probably returned the same phone to me untouched since the screen issues would go away if the phone wasn't used for a few weeks (but it would always come back). While other people had similar issues, LG never acknowledged the problem. It w…

I had a similar experience. I had an LG V20 and I loved so much about it, especially the extra display at the top for notifications and such, and the really incredible DAC. But the glass, both on the screen and the camera on the back, broke 4 times over the two years I owned it. It's still the only phone I've ever broken glass on.

I will forever remember the V20. I was at the mall shooting the shit with some friends in late 2016 waiting for the bus to bring us back to campus. We went to the Verizon store to look at the hottest new phones none of us could afford. There was a V20, and someone had changed the little top screen to display the static text "dicks out for harambe"

I still have a photo of it kicking around here somewhere.

Re: Teardown of unreleased LG Rollable shows why rollable phones aren't a thing

#14

Post by scrlk »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #2

I loved my LG Phones, once they gave up on making phones I moved on to iOS. There was always something nice about each model. The LG G2 had an IR at the top of it, so it was a universal remote control, it doesn't age very well (wife still has hers, but you cannot see the screen), but it was at its lifetime / prime an amazing phone, the only change I would have done is add an SD card to it. The G5 was another great ph…

LG never really recovered after releasing several phones with bootlooping issues between 2015-16: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_smartphone_bootloop_issues

Plus their software support was poor, even for the era.

Re: Teardown of unreleased LG Rollable shows why rollable phones aren't a thing

#15

Post by Theodores »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #2

I loved my LG Phones, once they gave up on making phones I moved on to iOS. There was always something nice about each model. The LG G2 had an IR at the top of it, so it was a universal remote control, it doesn't age very well (wife still has hers, but you cannot see the screen), but it was at its lifetime / prime an amazing phone, the only change I would have done is add an SD card to it. The G5 was another great ph…

LG got it right with the original Nexus 4, although battery life was a problem for all phones in that era. That phone had everything in a small form factor and it also came with a glass back that enabled the phone to fall off a perfectly level service, which was rectified with a little rubber piece.

The Nexus 4 should have lofted LG into the big league and the Nexus 4 owner should have graduated to a LG flagship. But this didn't happen, in part because people stayed with Google and moved on to what would become the Pixel series.

The problem with smartphones is that they are ultimately 'hand rectangles' and the average customer only needs adequate rather than super-deluxe. For a while it was possible to compete on features, battery life and mega-pixels, for people to queue outside phone retailers to be first with the new status-symbol-gadget. But times changed as the tech matured.

Most people couldn't care less about their phone specifications, so long as it works. Getting the latest and greatest phone makes as much sense as on insisting on the latest model of hand basin or the most hi-tech garden trowel. Who cares apart from reviewers or people with little going on in their lives.

Re: Teardown of unreleased LG Rollable shows why rollable phones aren't a thing

#17

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

That was too delicate for everyday use.

Phones get the crap kicked out of them. They need to be really robust.

I have an iPhone 17 Pro, and it's the first one that I've had (since the SE), that seems to have some "clunk" to it. I've already dropped it a couple of times, with no issues.

I want one of those "shake to flip" phones they had in Geostorm.

Re: Teardown of unreleased LG Rollable shows why rollable phones aren't a thing

#18

Post by crooked-v »

Stevvo wrote: post #16

Interesting video, but it didn't tell me why rollable phones aren't a thing. It doesn't appear any more flawed than the foldable concept.

I think the article gets at it indirectly: a complex mechanism with multiple motors, tracks, arms, etc, substantially more complicated and thus more failure-prone than any folding phone ever and also substantially more expensive to make.

Re: Teardown of unreleased LG Rollable shows why rollable phones aren't a thing

#19

Post by Mogzol »

crooked-v wrote: post #18
Stevvo wrote: post #16

Interesting video, but it didn't tell me why rollable phones aren't a thing. It doesn't appear any more flawed than the foldable concept.

I think the article gets at it indirectly: a complex mechanism with multiple motors, tracks, arms, etc, substantially more complicated and thus more failure-prone than any folding phone ever and also substantially more expensive to make.

Additionally, the flexible screen is on the outside which will quickly get damaged since it is made of soft plastic. It's too fragile for something that lives in your pocket every day. All modern foldables have the folding screen on the inside to keep them protected, and a standard glass screen on the front.

Re: Teardown of unreleased LG Rollable shows why rollable phones aren't a thing

#20

Post by jacobgkau »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #2

I loved my LG Phones, once they gave up on making phones I moved on to iOS. There was always something nice about each model. The LG G2 had an IR at the top of it, so it was a universal remote control, it doesn't age very well (wife still has hers, but you cannot see the screen), but it was at its lifetime / prime an amazing phone, the only change I would have done is add an SD card to it. The G5 was another great ph…

I really liked the G2 as well. It was the first phone (at least that I saw) to put the power and volume buttons on the back of the phone, where a ton of later phones would eventually start putting the fingerprint sensor.

I replaced LG's ROM with CyanogenMod back in the day, and it was such a smooth experience. The main reason I moved on from it was because I cracked the screen and the replacement screen I got (installed by a local repair shop) had a touch sensitivity issue along the top edge.

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