3 ms·

Rollable makes you think like toilet roll or something. It's looking more like "slid under battery and keyboard, bit of a shallow bend" to me. Maybe somebody c

by ggm 2y ago

Rollable makes you think like toilet roll or something. It's looking more like "slid under battery and keyboard, bit of a shallow bend" to me. Maybe somebody can do teardown and show us what it looks like packed away, and how the mechanism works? It's a bit more "slightly bendy sliding door" to me at least.

gnabgib 2y ago
Well Lenovo just demonstrated one at CES: https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/electronics/lenovo-thinkbook-plus-gen-6-ces-2025 https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/electronics/lenovo-think... LG has one (but they make their own screens): https://www.lg.com/us/lg-signature/rollable-oled-tv-r https://www.lg.com/us/lg-signature/rollable-oled-tv-r
- ggm 2y ago
  The lenovo video shows you everything except how it works. It's the one I watched to come up with "isn't this just sliding doors without Gwyneth Paltrow?" The LG one has a plausibly large box. I can believe this is rolling up like a scroll. Or a toilet roll.
  - gnabgib 2y ago
    The Lenovo video literally shows you a working device from the floor of CES. By how it works do you mean instead... (a) where the excess is stored, (b) how it's rolled, (c) what the (surely quite valuable) IP is?
    - ggm 2y ago
      Yes. How is exactly what I meant, not "does it work" but "how does it work" which is why the word "how" was in there. That IP will be protected by patents, it won't survive by secrecy the first ifixit teardown or one of the bill of materials calculation sites will remove that veil.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      - bildung 2y ago
        No need to be snarky, googling "samsung rollable display patent" isn't so hard: https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=US437307413 https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=US43...
        mcny 2y ago
        I thought the meta or prevailing wisdom was software developers / programmers should NEVER™ read patent documents?
        ggm 2y ago
        Thank you for that. It's almost exactly what I expected with a twist. It's not a roll up. It's a roll around. I apologise for the snark.
        codetrotter 2y ago
        That patent shows the kind of screen they use in those phones that you fold in and out. Like for example the Samsung Galaxy Fold Z phones. https://www.samsung.com/en/smartphones/galaxy-z-fold6/ https://www.samsung.com/en/smartphones/galaxy-z-fold6/ I wonder if they use the same kind of folding/rolling screen or not in that laptop they show in the OP article. When I last looked at these kinds of phones in the store I found the screens super underwhelming. Maybe it has improved since.
        cubefox 2y ago
        That's probably not what most people here understood with "rollable". It doesn't form a a roll like a roll of paper.
- soco 2y ago
  And the whole LG site about it shows... a box and a "add to cart" button (which doesn't work). Do they really expect us to buy the cat in the bag sorry in the box?
beardyw 2y ago
Well, it would be less useful in a roll. This way you keep the laptop form factor. It's probably the best approach.
- ggm 2y ago
  Older thinkpads had ugly bulges for extra life batteries which doubled as "it's better for your typing at this angle" lift. You could (for instance) get quite a lot of less dramatically tight rolling in that. Or concertina it. Sinclair's "tape drive expansion" in the z80 days was reel-less free tape inside the insanely tiny cartridge. It just smooged the tape up in a giant concertina inside.
  - actionfromafar 2y ago
    https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/the-zx-microdrive-budget-data-storage-1980s-style/ https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/the-zx-microdrive-budget-dat... - on a single spool ackshully.
    - ggm 2y ago
      There you go. I wuz wrong and you iz right.
ehnto 2y ago
Wouldn't it be quite an extreme bend once the screen is stowed and the laptop is closed? 180degrees at like a 1-2mm radius curve I would expect. That could actually roll up given a 1-2mm centre to roll onto.
- ggm 2y ago
  It there's a rod under the hinge structure it could be bending through the radius of a pencil at worst.
maxglute 2y ago
Scrollable

by ggm 2y ago

gnabgib 2y ago

Well Lenovo just demonstrated one at CES: https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/electronics/lenovo-thinkbook-plus-gen-6-ces-2025 https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/electronics/lenovo-think... LG has one (but they make their own screens): https://www.lg.com/us/lg-signature/rollable-oled-tv-r https://www.lg.com/us/lg-signature/rollable-oled-tv-r

ggm 2y ago
The lenovo video shows you everything except how it works. It's the one I watched to come up with "isn't this just sliding doors without Gwyneth Paltrow?" The LG one has a plausibly large box. I can believe this is rolling up like a scroll. Or a toilet roll.
- gnabgib 2y ago
  The Lenovo video literally shows you a working device from the floor of CES. By how it works do you mean instead... (a) where the excess is stored, (b) how it's rolled, (c) what the (surely quite valuable) IP is?
  - ggm 2y ago
    Yes. How is exactly what I meant, not "does it work" but "how does it work" which is why the word "how" was in there. That IP will be protected by patents, it won't survive by secrecy the first ifixit teardown or one of the bill of materials calculation sites will remove that veil.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - bildung 2y ago
      No need to be snarky, googling "samsung rollable display patent" isn't so hard: https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=US437307413 https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=US43...
      - mcny 2y ago
        I thought the meta or prevailing wisdom was software developers / programmers should NEVER™ read patent documents?
      - ggm 2y ago
        Thank you for that. It's almost exactly what I expected with a twist. It's not a roll up. It's a roll around. I apologise for the snark.
      - codetrotter 2y ago
        That patent shows the kind of screen they use in those phones that you fold in and out. Like for example the Samsung Galaxy Fold Z phones. https://www.samsung.com/en/smartphones/galaxy-z-fold6/ https://www.samsung.com/en/smartphones/galaxy-z-fold6/ I wonder if they use the same kind of folding/rolling screen or not in that laptop they show in the OP article. When I last looked at these kinds of phones in the store I found the screens super underwhelming. Maybe it has improved since.
      - cubefox 2y ago
        That's probably not what most people here understood with "rollable". It doesn't form a a roll like a roll of paper.
soco 2y ago
And the whole LG site about it shows... a box and a "add to cart" button (which doesn't work). Do they really expect us to buy the cat in the bag sorry in the box?

beardyw 2y ago

Well, it would be less useful in a roll. This way you keep the laptop form factor. It's probably the best approach.

ggm 2y ago
Older thinkpads had ugly bulges for extra life batteries which doubled as "it's better for your typing at this angle" lift. You could (for instance) get quite a lot of less dramatically tight rolling in that. Or concertina it. Sinclair's "tape drive expansion" in the z80 days was reel-less free tape inside the insanely tiny cartridge. It just smooged the tape up in a giant concertina inside.
- actionfromafar 2y ago
  https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/the-zx-microdrive-budget-data-storage-1980s-style/ https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/the-zx-microdrive-budget-dat... - on a single spool ackshully.
  - ggm 2y ago
    There you go. I wuz wrong and you iz right.

ehnto 2y ago

Wouldn't it be quite an extreme bend once the screen is stowed and the laptop is closed? 180degrees at like a 1-2mm radius curve I would expect. That could actually roll up given a 1-2mm centre to roll onto.

ggm 2y ago
It there's a rod under the hinge structure it could be bending through the radius of a pencil at worst.

maxglute 2y ago

Scrollable