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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

#21

Post by cwillu »

Theodores wrote: post #15
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…

> it also came with a glass back that enabled the phone to fall off a perfectly level service

I used to put mine on my wallet, and it took ages to figure out why I kept dropping it: the moment you set it down, it would start sliding _incredibly_ slowly.

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

#22

Post by jfengel »

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.

The impression I got was "too many parts, too much to go wrong, too expensive to build".

It doesn't rule out that other people might have better ideas, but it does suggest why LG decided it wasn't worth it.

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

#24

Post by gf000 »

Mogzol wrote: post #19
crooked-v wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It slides behind a glass panel on the back, so I don't think that's true.

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

#25

Post by Mogzol »

gf000 wrote: post #24
Mogzol wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It slides behind a glass panel on the back, so I don't think that's true.

The whole display is plastic, including the part on the front that doesn't wrap around. Yes the part behind the glass panel on the back would be protected, but the front of the phone wouldn't be.

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

#26

Post by SirMaster »

Mogzol wrote: post #25
gf000 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It slides behind a glass panel on the back, so I don't think that's true.

The whole display is plastic, including the part on the front that doesn't wrap around. Yes the part behind the glass panel on the back would be protected, but the front of the phone wouldn't be.

Yet they still make trifold phones where one of the folds is on the outer side...

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

#27

Post by Mogzol »

SirMaster wrote: post #26
Mogzol wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole display is plastic, including the part on the front that doesn't wrap around. Yes the part behind the glass panel on the back would be protected, but the front of the phone wouldn't be.

Yet they still make trifold phones where one of the folds is on the outer side...

"they" being Huawei, and their phone suffers from the same problem, the main display can be easily damaged by dust, dirt, or just your fingernails pressing into it. Notably Samsung's trifold kept the folding display entirely inside when folded, presumably to avoid this problem.

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

#29

Post by stuxnet79 »

scrlk wrote: post #14
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.

My G4 succumbed to this issue, and I was never able to revive it. I had some important documents and images there that I hadn't yet backed up to cloud that disappeared along with it. Still very sour about that. Other than that I enjoyed the phone, felt the dimensions were perfect and the camera was good for its time. But a defect of that nature is too serious to overlook so that was the last LG phone I ever owned.

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

#30

Post by dsr_ »

Phone mechanisms which worked for me:

- the original Motorola StarTac "Star Trek Communicator" flip.

- the Danger Hiptop / Sidekick II rotating screen-over-keyboard

- the Motorola Droid slide-out keyboard

- the OnePlus 7Pro slide-out selfie-cam

Only that last one was motorized, but mine is still working. Holes and divots and islands and any other kind of screen interference is strictly inferior.

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