LG Rollable phone release date, price, features and news

Just when phones were starting to feel stale in terms of design options, we saw the introduction of folding-screen smartphones such as the Galaxy Z Fold. Then dual-screen phones made a comeback in 2020, with the Microsoft Surface Duo and the T-shaped LG Wing.

And now in 2021, we're expecting a whole new generation of smartphones – the rollables. Chinese companies such as Oppo have already teased their own rollable phones and Samsung likely has one in the works, but here we'll focus on what LG has been working on and will likely never happen – the LG Rollable phone.

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LG Rollable phone release date and name

  • The LG Rollable may never see a release

According to early reports, the LG Rollable smartphone was to arrive sometime in March 2021 as the newest product in LG’s Explorer Project. However, in late January of 2021 news surfaced that LG could be shutting down its smartphone business altogether, or at least shifting away from flagship smartphones, which made the fate of the LG Rollable uncertain.

On February 22, a South Korean publication alleged that LG has asked its supplies to pause their plans for the LG Rollable. In mid-March, it was discovered that a device named "LG Rollable" has received Bluetooth 5.2 certification, which sparked back hopes that the LG Rollable will make it to market after all.

But sadly, on April 5th, 2020, LG officially announced that it is quitting the phone business. This once again brings us to assume that the LG Rollable may never be released.

As for the name of the phone, we knew since November 2020 that LG had filed a trademark in the European Union for the names "LG Rollable" and "LG Slide". On January 11, 2021, LG showed the following teaser confirming the LG Rollable name to indeed be the one:


LG Rollable phone price


Although we've never had official information on how much the LG Rollable might cost, we've come to expect high prices of smartphones that introduce new technology to the market. Those, such as the Galaxy Z Fold 2, Motorola Razr 2020 and Microsoft Surface Duo range anywhere between $1,400 and $2,000. The LG Rollable/Slide could have easily cost between $1,400 and $2,000.

LG Rollable phone design and display


We don't have official images of the phone, but we do have concept renders (shown above, courtesy of LetsGoDigital), in addition to recent LG Rollable patent images (shown below).

The LG Rollable phone will feature a flexible OLED display, which as the phone's name suggests, will be able to roll inside the housing of the phone when the user needs a normal-sized, pocketable phone experience. When the user needs it to become a tablet, the LG Rollable's display will automatically roll out (via a motorized mechanism), turning the smartphone into about a 7.4-inch tablet.

Thanks to the fact that this is a sliding-display phone and not a foldable, there will be no crease in the middle of its screen, like we've come to expect from folding phones. The LG Rollable phone's display does not just have one single bending point.

Below is an image from an older LG rollable phone patent, showing an earlier, more rounded design that was likely considered for the phone.


In addition, below is possibly an alternative LG Rollable design, sporting a smaller outer display. This image comes from yet another LG patent that surfaced on February 12th.


On April 6th, 2021, the following Tweet appeared to show what the LG Rollable would've looked like, suggesting that the phone was in either fully or nearly completed state.



LG Rollable phone software and camera


The phone will run Android 10 or possibly 11, with its interface smoothly adapting to the display's rolled-out and rolled-in states and adjusting to how the user holds the phone in terms of orientation. When the display is rolled into the body of the phone, the LG Rollable will function just as a normal-sized Android smartphone. And when the display is rolled out, the phone is likely going to allow for a seamless multi-tasking experience with multiple open apps, if the user needs it. If not, the phone will simply display a single app or video or game on a larger scale.

Here is a demonstration of how the Android operating system will adapt to rollable smartphones like the LG Rollable, in both their "standard" and rolled out display modes:

Video Thumbnail

As suggested by its most recent patent, the LG Rollable may not have physical volume buttons, but will rely on software touch controls. The more recent patent of an LG rollable phone also shows a vertical camera module holding three cameras, at least one of which will likely be wide-angle.

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