LG has shown of its curved-screen LG G Flex taking some impressive punishment. In the video the scratch-resistance of the rear plate is demonstrated, as is the impressive flexibility of the smartphone as a whole.
Like a bendy Wolverine
The LG G Flex bent can be completely straight and then back out again without suffering any catastrophic damage to the display. This would likely mean greater impact resistance when dropped or struck – a feature we can definitely get behind.
It’s a pretty clear demonstration of what we’ve been talking about regarding the impending flexible display revolution and what it will do for the durability of display panels. It looks like LG has already figured out what angle it’s going to take when its bendy screens hit the market and that angle is toughness, rather than weird and wonderful designs.
The seemingly self-healing, scratch-resistant rear panel also has us intrigued. While case scratches are hardly a major worry, it’s still impressive to see a material that can potentially shrug off anything else you’d jam in to your pocket alongside it.
Changing times
A couple of generations ago this G Flex video wouldn’t have been big news. Back then durability in a smartphone always meant sacrifices in performance and form factor. No longer.
Now that we have 1080p displays measuring a good 5-inches, there’s less pressure for manufacturers to out-do each other with better display panels. While a 2k or even 4k screen would draw media attention and look great in ad add, real-world use would likely show that it wasn’t much perceptibly better than what we have right now. The human eye can only see so much detail.
Processing power has also become another expected part of the process. These days we know that our high-end smartphones are powerful, so precisely what CPU it’s running is losing a bit of its lustre. Top-tier phones are monsters. We get it. So what’s next?
The bending road to success
The LG G Flex and Samsung Galaxy Round, both handsets with curved displays, recently reminded the world that there are currently two undisputed lords of screen-tech sorcery: LG and Samsung.
These phones aren’t anything like the old Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus devices; those phones only had bent glass over an essentially flat display panel. The LG G Flex and Galaxy Round have genuinely curved display panels.
Bendy screens aren’t just a gimmick; they’re essentially
drop-proof technology. The great thing about OLED display panels is that they’re
almost as flexible as the material to which they’re adhered. The difficulty
lies in getting the panel
on to the
material itself in a cheap and efficient manner.
Once it’s figured out we may finally have phones that we can drop without suffering a mild panic attack; phones that we can shove in to a bag without fear and maybe even toss to a friend across a room.
Sony has already started waterproofing its flagship phones like the Xperia Z1 and Xperia ZR, taking a different approach to accident-proof smartphones.
Smartphones are an important part of many of our lives. It’s about time they stopped being such a liability and it’s great to see the market moving in this direction.
Now if we could only improve battery life…
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