Slidable PCs are latest innovation by Samsung Display

Step aside, foldable smartphones: Slidable PCs are the next big thing.

Samsung Display CEO Choi Joo-sun demonstrates a device with sliding screens at Intel's Innovation 2022 on Tuesday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Step aside, foldable smartphones: Slidable PCs are the next big thing.

Samsung Display introduced a prototype of slidable PC display panels capable of transforming from a tablet-like 13 inch into a laptop monitor-sized 17 inch, at Intel's Innovation 2022 conference in the United States on Tuesday.

“We’re announcing the world’s first 17-inch slidable display for PCs,” Samsung Display CEO Choi Joo-sun said at the conference after Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger invited him to the stage. “This device will satisfy the various needs for a larger screen while still being portable.”

However, a spokesperson at the panel maker said that “nothing has been decided” about mass production, possible releases, or cooperation between the two companies on the product.

Samsung Display has worked on organic light-emitting diode (OLED)-based sliding screens that extend horizontally like a scroll to provide a larger screen experience, but the only concept products demonstrated so far were smartphones.

The display unit, 84.8 percent owned by Samsung Electronics, trademarked the Slidable Flex Solo and Slidable Flex Duet earlier this month with the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

The slidable concept first appeared at the Society for Information Display (SID) annual trade show in 2021.

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