Link: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/04/teardown-of-unreleased-lg-rollable-shows-why-rollable-phones-arent-a-thing/

LG almost released a rollable smartphone in 2021, and this is what it looked like inside.

I would love to have a tablet that rolls up into a canister so I can scroll on a scroll. I don't know if they'll ever be more practical than rigid screens but the tech is very cool.

This thing is so fucking cool. I'm surprised foldables survived but these didn't. I mean, I don't know what sort of technical hurdles something like this has, comparatively, but I really like the idea of a rollable screen versus a foldable one.

The main difference seems to be that this requires a motor. It's a more complex mechanism so potentially more expensive and prone to failure than a foldable, and extending and retracting the screen uses battery power.

But some people would prefer this to a thick and chunky foldable. And foldables put more strain on the screen material so the failure rate might even out.

The motors make a surprising amount of noise when operating, so LG designed the phone to play a musical chime to hide the sound.

💀

That's super fair, but I'd even be cool with a manual model. Like, sliding the back plate to unfurl the screen would also be sick, kinda like sliding phones. Especially if it came with a glass backplate like this one did. Just the ability to make my screen larger when I need the space, and dodging the creases would be awesome.

That's the coolest phone I've seen. The engineering is very impressive

To be honest, I don't think the motors are that loud

https://youtu.be/vSK3maq8Cyk

Unfortunately all of the flexible screens are soft and easy to scratch. I don't think they will ever be practical.

I hold out hopes that some materials researcher will be able to come up with some material flexible and durable enough that they'd be useful, someday. The technology is new enough that I still feel confident that there are still plenty of breakthroughs waiting to be made. But who knows 🤷

Phones with motorized front cameras do that too, though you can turn it off

Shame that we got foldable phones instead of this