That’s how close the LG Rollable was to being a real phone | gadget

LG was supposed to launch another phone with an unusual form factor after The Wing as a response to Samsung’s foldables. At CES 2021, the company confirmed that it was working on a phone with a rollable screen and that it would be available later that year. It never got around to launching the device before shutting down its mobile business after its newer models, which included the Wing, failed to gain traction. But now a practical video by Korean tech critic 뻘짓연구소 (BullsLab) shows just how close LG came to releasing the phone that would simply be called the “Rollable”.

While the Wing featured a rotating screen on top of a smaller one below it, the Rollable was designed to have a screen that stretches until the phone becomes a small tablet. In the video, you’ll see how responsive the device is and how quickly it starts to expand after the YouTuber swipes the screen with three fingers. Everything displayed on the screen, even animated wallpapers, adjusts automatically. At one point, the reviewer places three books next to the phone to show that its motor is strong enough to move the stack as it stretches.

In addition to the extensible main screen, the phone’s rear panel also doubles as an additional screen that can house a handful of widgets, including those for the camera, calendar, and music. If you fire up the camera app from that extra screen, you’ll be able to take selfies without turning on the main phone.

According to the device that BullsLab reviewed, the Rollable would have launched with a Snapdragon 888 CPU, up to 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. Those were high-end specs that would have put the Rollable in the same category as flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S21.

Since LG’s mobile business is no more, there’s little to no chance of Rollable, well, rolling out. It’s worth noting that Oppo also showed off a rollable phone in 2021, but it was just a prototype and we haven’t heard anything about it since.