“The flexible screen changes dimensions, unfolding like a roller shutter” – Kommersant FM

Kommersant FM columnist Alexander Levi talks about Chinese mobile vendors who presented concepts for models with a roll-out screen.

Smartphone makers Transsion Holdings and BBK Electronics are developing models with a roll-out display. This is a flexible screen that changes dimensions, unfolding like a roller shutter. The first versions of such devices should be expected by the end of 2024, CNMO resource insiders assure.

Which of the competing giants will be the first to enter the market with the new form factor remains to be seen. But from BBK Electronics the sources call vivo. Meanwhile, other representatives of this camp (Oppo, Realme and OnePlus) should not be discounted. I held the working concept of a roll-out display by Oppo in my hands a couple of years ago.

Transsion showed off its version of the concept last September. The Tecno Phantom Ultimate model received a display whose diagonal expanded from 6.55 inches to 7.11 inches. And this process took up to 1.3 seconds.

Chinese mobile vendors have taken up the active development of roll-out displays because it is quite difficult to compete in the current market for folding smartphones, including so-called clamshells, especially with Samsung models, and in the domestic market with Huawei. Our own development of a new form factor will allow manufacturers from the Middle Kingdom to occupy, if not the leading, then one of the first positions.

In any case, Transsion Holdings and BBK Electronics are quite fruitful, including in Russia. Tecno recently launched its flagship flip phone, the Phantom V Flip 5G. Sister brand Infinix has expanded its Note 30 lineup with a VIP model.

Vivo and Realme presented their new products on the same day. The first introduced the flagship of the mid-price segment V29 to the domestic market, the second launched sales of smartphones in the same class of the 11 series.