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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

#41

Post by wolvoleo »

dsr_ wrote: post #30

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.

I liked the slide down mechanism of the nokia 7110 also. Bonus points for the microphone being at the bottom of it so it served a purpose by putting the mic really close to the mouth (unlike later sliders like the banana phone which didn't do this)

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

#42

Post by wolvoleo »

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…

I think the nexus 5 was better. Except the ceramic letters that fell off. It had real 4G (on the Nexus 4 it was unofficial) and was a lot faster

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

#43

Post by patatero »

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.

If motor is a problem, why don't they make manual rollable by hand?

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

#44

Post by MagicMoonlight »

patatero wrote: post #43
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.

If motor is a problem, why don't they make manual rollable by hand?

Screen wouldn’t stay in place, it would keep sliding around

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

#45

Post by mrheosuper »

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #44
patatero wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If motor is a problem, why don't they make manual rollable by hand?

Screen wouldn’t stay in place, it would keep sliding around

Can be solved with magnets and friction i guess.

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

#46

Post by rickdeckard »

I don't see how that's technically any less possible than a Galaxy Fold (6 years ago!). The flaws on the screen, risk of dust etc. is the very same as the first release from Samsung.

Some bits of background information:

##. The sample shown here is not production-ready, it's a revision "DV2" (visible at timestamp 5:50 in the upper left corner of the device) which was hand-assembled approximately one year before the planned launch (~Oct/Nov 2019) to be presented at CES and closed-door customer meetings.

DV stands for "Development version", which is the phase where all the parts are assembled to proceed development in the various SW/HW/Quality Teams.

In LG-terms that means it was only the SECOND revision of that hardware that the R&D built. Usually there were 4-5 additional revisions on mechanical design, board layout, RF-tuning etc. before entering mass-production (LG cycle: EV->DV1->DV2->DVx->PV1->PV2->MP--> Mass-production)

The MP-revision is the initial mass-production test, where the factory tested if they can efficiently mass-produce this design by producing ~500pcs and keeping notes on issues and difficulties to fix before entering actual high-volume production.

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

#47

Post by rickdeckard »

rickdeckard wrote: post #46

I don't see how that's technically any less possible than a Galaxy Fold (6 years ago!). The flaws on the screen, risk of dust etc. is the very same as the first release from Samsung. Some bits of background information: ##. The sample shown here is not production-ready, it's a revision "DV2" (visible at timestamp 5:50 in the upper left corner of the device) which was hand-assembled approximately one year before the p…

##. Rollables are most-likely not "a thing" today, because LG did so much fundamental research on this and owns many of the relevant patents.

The key tech is less in the panel itself than the supporting structure (the skeleton supporting and stabilizing the panel, you can also see this in the R&D involved in the hinge-tech of folding devices)

Oppo (and Lenovo iirc) were presenting similar rollable form-factors on roadshows or press-events ~2019, but this was prior to the patents (especially [0]) being granted, likely also used the OLED Panel from LG Display (but I'm not sure the designs were actually considering durability as much as LG already did at this stage)

[0] https://patents.google.com/patent/EP3506247A1

[1] https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2014123272A1

[2] https://patents.google.com/patent/US10564676B2

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

#48

Post by rickdeckard »

rickdeckard wrote: post #46

I don't see how that's technically any less possible than a Galaxy Fold (6 years ago!). The flaws on the screen, risk of dust etc. is the very same as the first release from Samsung. Some bits of background information: ##. The sample shown here is not production-ready, it's a revision "DV2" (visible at timestamp 5:50 in the upper left corner of the device) which was hand-assembled approximately one year before the p…

##. The big handicap of LG at that time: The launch of this product was still 10~12 months in the future, was definitely not going to be a high-volume product and the brand needed investment in many countries to carry such a premium device.

Meanwhile sales of the last flagships LG G8, V50, V60 was behind expectations, the period required a massive increase in R&D investment to commercialize 5G technology and Chinese vendors (Xiaomi, Oppo/Vivo/OnePlus, Lenovo) made a huge push into international carrier-markets.

It was all on thin ice already, but there were also some great Mid/High-tier devices in the pipeline, LG was in the lead for commercializing 5G in many markets and had a few aces up its sleeve for the coming quarters like this rollable device.

Then COVID came. Global Sales of the industry collapsed, everything became slower and also semiconductor pricing exploded.

The companies which made it through COVID better than others were those who already had solid brands and high-volume sales before that period. They had the warehouses filled with tested and launched devices, they cut a bit on profit, increased a bit on price and prepared a semi-hibernation mode.

LG's mobile division was not in such a state in most markets. It wasn't profitable for several quarters at this point, and it was clear that it won't be profitable for several quarters to come.

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

#49

Post by mschild »

dsr_ wrote: post #30

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.

I loved the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 slide mechanism.

The front camera was hidden and you would slide the back up to expose it. Was not motorized and functioned using magnets. Very similar to what old dumb phones used. Super reliable and easy to use.

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

#50

Post by _ink_ »

LG made nice phones. It was also ahead with the Optimus 3D, which could take stereoscopic photos and show them without glasses. Never understood why this didn't take off. My G6 spend a night in the ocean and was working fine afterwards. My Pixel gave up immediately after being dipped into a clear lake briefly.
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