The First Phone You Can Actually Bend: LG's G Flex
iONiUM writes "As a follow up to LG's announcement of mass flexible OLED production, and as a competitor to the limited Samsung Round trial which was only available in Korea on SK Telecom, LG has released the G Flex phone which is curved vertically (instead of the Round's horizontal bend, which many thought was the 'wrong way'). In addition, the G Flex can actually be flexed, as shown in the video in the article."
Why would you actually want to flex a phone? Does it make it more durable or more comfortable to hold in some way? According to the article, it takes a bit of force to do, so I doubt it's the latter.
(This isn't a criticism so much as bewildered curiosity.)
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
This one just can be flexed more than once.
How did they make the battery flexible? It's a little light on the details.
Soon you will pull out a small device, the same size as an iphone, but with two tubes at either end. And on a whim, you will unroll these tubes, revealing a large horizontal screen, where you can read your internets!
BEHOLD!!! Cometh soon the iSCROLL! For all your iPapyrus needs!
I actually like the idea of a curved display. I don't fully understand the point of flexible - especially in this instance where it has to be forced so hard.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
That's a pretty big disappointment. We were led to believe that it would flex 180Â like in this picture: http://tech.infaround.com/2013/04/25/lg-to-unveil-new-smartphone-with-flexible-oled-display-later-this-year/
This would cover the two big reasons why a phone needs to be replaced, the third being lost/stolen.
Add a tracking system so the phone can be retrieved and you can rule the world.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
If you are going to have a flexible screen one would think you wouldn't use glass to cover it. You would need a material that also flexes. If it flexes it isn't going to be very hard and is likely to accumulate scratches like the old-school plastic screens. Not to say the tech is useless; it just seems to have limited applications in today's standard rectangle phones. Perhaps the tech will evolve enough to inspire a new phone design. Until then, meh.
including your favorite skinny dipping sites.
I don't see a problem with Instagram, Twitpic, Facebook, and Flickr updates from people skinnydipping.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
What was that a 5 degree bend?
Sorry but that's not flexible. If I can't fold it into quarters and stick it in my pocket, don't tell me it is.
From like 2004 to 2011 I had a phone that I had to bend in half to answer.
The Nokia 8110 (Banana phone) was very popular in its time. It has always surprised me that it's a design that hasn't been revisited. Perhaps this is its time.
Between phones and sex toys.
I'm waiting for inflatable screens.
Like a regular to small size phone but for those times you need something bigger than 5" it has a little valve you can blow into when which will inflate a screen that is bigger than a tablet. When you are done, just squish the air out and stick it back in your pocket.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
You could be phones for years and years. The problem was that they didn't bend back. The ability to bend back, that's what's important. That and the ability to bend that first time without breaking....
but will it blend? I'll show myself out now.
you and my brother.... get a blue-tooth "Hands free to pee"
Completely abused here.
No offence, but a phone that can "flex" 1/2mm by using extreme force is not a breakthrough. Its on the side of pointless.
If we are using LG's definition of "flex", my motherboard does it better, not to mention, my monitor is constantly flexing by 0.01mm on its own.