Samsung Tri-Fold Phone, Rollable Tablet Teased In Official Images

Samsung still needs to check off a few things from its list before its foldable phone could be truly considered complete but that isn't stopping it from cooking up other things. Of course, with a company as big as Samsung, it is often working on other things in the background, things that may never see the light of day. Often, we only get glimpses of them in patents but Samsung's display-making arm is more than happy to share its future visions.

The images, pretty much just painted graphics, describe Samsung Display's concepts of how screens have become part of daily life and how its own future panels could drive those experiences. One image shows a phone that unfolds into a rectangular tablet just like the Galaxy Z Fold 2. The difference is that the device actually folds three times, a design that would remove the need for a second "Cover Display".

A second image shows a tablet that rolls out from a tube. Unlike the tri-fold phone, this design might not be usable without a hard surface to lay the screen on given its flexible nature.

These ideas aren't new and we've seen patents for these before, including those from other companies. In fact, TCL even showed off a prototype of a tri-fold phone earlier this year and a rollable display just last month. LG is also rumored to be preparing its own rollable phone under a Project B moniker.

Of course, these images don't exactly mean that Samsung, specifically its mobile business, will be setting things into motion soon. It is pretty much Samsung Display's way of saying that it, too, has had those ideas and may even have the capacity to produce these displays. Whether they make for viable, practical, or affordable products, however, is a different matter entirely.