LG Rollable Smartphone ‘Project B’ With a Side-Rolling Display Expected to Launch Next Year: Reports

LG's rumoured “Project B” smartphone with a rollable display is expected to launch in March 2021, a new report suggests. A render of the phone has also surfaced which shows a rollable display that can be extended from either side of the phone. The render is based on a patent filed by LG for a phone with a “flexible display” that can be rolled into its casing. The patent was filed with USPO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) in August 2019 and has now been published. This is expected to be the second smartphone under LG's “Explorer Project” after the South Korean company launched the dual-screen LG Wing with a swivel main display last month.

“Project B” was earlier reported to have been gone into production to prepare for launch data in the second half of 2021. But a new report by TheElec now estimates that the launch will be in March 2021.

The render of the “Project B” phone created by LetsGoDigital is based on a patent filed by LG for a “'slidably-movable" mobile terminal, which has now been included in the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office) database. The render imagines the phone to be the size of a regular smartphone in its most compact form with a display that increases by 100 percent when the screen is pulled out from both the left and the right side of the device when it is held vertically. This means that the user is also likely to have the option to pull out the screen from only one side and achieve a display size that sits somewhere between a smartphone and a tablet.

The “Project B”, said to have been codenamed after LG CEO Kwon Bong-seok, is likely to have an OLED display that can be partially rolled into a metal housing. The report says that LG will also install a “sidelock” that prevents the screen from rolling in or out unintentionally, or even too quickly, that could cause the display to develop creases.

LG is reportedly working on another phone codenamed “Rainbow” which is also expected to launch in the first quarter of next year. TheElec report speculates that its specifications will be similar to LG's V series that includes the LG V40, V50, and V60 ThinQ phones launched last year.

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