[NEWS IN FOCUS] Samsung's ambitions to fold come to light

As the world's king of foldable smartphones, Samsung Electronics is looking beyond the fold down the center.

Samsung Display's Flex G is on display at CES 2022 in Las Vegas. [SAMSUNG DISPLAY]

As the world’s king of foldable smartphones, Samsung Electronics is looking beyond the fold down the center.

Tech-savvy customers of today and the future will want devices capable of folding twice or even three times, allowing for even more dramatic convertibility — and Samsung's engineers are working to make those dreams come true.

Design of multi-foldable device patent filed with World Intellectual Property Organization [SCREEN CAPTURE]

In a patented design recently published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the electronics maker introduced the concept of a laptop in which the display can be detached from the keyboard, both of which can be folded in half.

But even when connected, the entire laptop can be folded into a square — making it a quarter of its original size.

SamMobile, a Samsung-focused media outlet, released the documentation filed with WIPO last week.

It remains to be seen whether the concept will ever find its way onto the market, since not all patented concepts are commercialized.

At CES 2022 earlier this month, Samsung Display, primary display supplier to the tech giant, presented a prototype laptop named Flex Note with a screen that is 17-inch screen when unfolded. When folded horizontally, it is reduced to a 13-inch form factor. The only foldable laptop currently on the market is Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 model, which was released in 2020. But it will likely see competition in the coming years.

Taiwan’s Asus brought its 17-inch foldable laptop based on an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel to this year’s CES. The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED, due to be released in the second quarter of this year, can open up a 17-inch screen and fold down to 12-inches.

At the same event, LG Display showed off a 17-inch foldable OLED screen with multiple applications including as a laptop, gaming monitor and tablet.

The display affiliate of Samsung Electronics also introduced two new concepts of folding smartphones at CES 2022. Its Flex G screen can be folded twice inward, so that the display side is totally protected. “Samsung Display’s Flex G is a multi-foldable product that folds inwards twice in a “G” shape,” the company said in a statement. “The device shows higher durability since its tri-fold design endures phone drops or other external impact better than conventional foldables,” it said.

Samsung Display's Flex S is on display at CES 2022 [SAMSUNG DISPLAY]

As the name suggests, the other Flex S screen folds into an S shape, with one display part folded backwards, the other forwards.

"The biggest advantage of this particular shape is that depending on the way you fold it, it can be used as a smartphone, tablet, or an AI device," the panel maker said.

Market tracker ResearchAndMarkets predicts that the market for foldable displays will grow from $269 million in 2020 to $8.7 billion in 2028.

Another display-focused market research company, DSCC, expects the foldable and rollable panels market to grow by 87.5 percent annually from 2020 to 2025.

BY PARK EUN-JEE, CHOI EUN-KYUNG [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]