Companies have been toying with a new concept of screen displays right in front of our faces for a few years, and we may not even have noticed. When you hear sliding phones, you may think of the old BlackBerry or Sidekick phones. However, with this upcoming era of sliding phones, it’s not a keyboard that slides out; it’s the phone’s actual screen.
Foldable phones have been the latest hot trend in smartphones, with Apple finally joining the party with its iPhone Duo. These phones give you the flexibility to use your phone as a regular phone or a mini tablet, handling multiple tasks on different screens. But some don’t want a large horizontal display and would rather have more vertical screen space. Well, that’s where sliding phones come in.
Samsung may be developing a sliding/rollable phone
The phone would feature an extendable vertical display
Prominent tech insider and leaker Ice Universe recently shared concept renders on his X account of what he expects to be a new Samsung Galaxy phone with a display that can extend from 16:9 to 21:9 vertically via a sliding mechanism that rolls the display upward.
You’d essentially have a compact phone that stretches into a larger one whenever you need more screen space for reading, scrolling, maps, or watching videos. It could also eliminate the visible crease and need for a separate cover screen found on book-style foldables. Samsung actually demonstrated a similar design earlier this year at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026.
In a YouTube video by Android Authority, a rollable display concept was presented at the conference, featuring a 5.1-inch display that expands to 6.7 inches and reaches 1080 × 2640 resolution when fully extended. However, the display itself was created by Samsung Display, not Samsung Electronics, so technically the display was the main focus, not the actual phone. Samsung is likely considering this type of display for future phones.
Ice Universe mentioned in the post that the mechanism would take up a lot of internal space, raising concerns about a potentially limited battery size and whether it’d be sufficient to power such a device. It’s a legitimate concern because we know folding phones, which also use larger displays, consume considerably more battery than a typical smartphone.
I don’t think Samsung could implement a two-battery design with a phone like this, as seen in most foldable phones; the phone appears to be a single display that rolls in and out of the phone, rather than two separate displays.
Companies have already been experimenting with sliding displays via a rollable screen
LG has been ahead of the game in this technology
In April 2026, tech reviewer MKBHD released a YouTube review of the unreleased LG Rollable, which featured a dual-rear camera setup with a 64 MP main lens and a 12 MP ultra-wide. With the ability to extend horizontally, the video shows that the expandable display is unnoticeable when not extended.
LG no longer sells phones, so it makes sense that this rollable device was never released, but it’s rather bizarre that they got so far into manufacturing it only to have it never be available for sale. MKBHD did highlight some weaknesses of the phone, including that the sliding mechanism may pinch things when it’s closing, and there seems to be no water resistance, which may be a challenge for future sliding phones.
LG has a reputation for out-of-the-box ideas for its devices, including a two-display phone with a front display that slides and rotates horizontally, and a previous phone compatible with a case featuring a built-in display, essentially turning the device into one of the first foldable smartphones on the market.
LG also sold rollable TVs, such as its 650inch Signature OLED R, which the company claims was the world’s first commercial rollable 4K OLED TV. The company stopped selling them in 2024 due to low consumer demand, which isn’t surprising, given that the TV cost $100,000, a price outside the range of most everyday consumers.
Rollable phones aren’t new
They just haven’t been offered for sale yet
Other companies such as Oppo and Motorola have also experimented with rollable display designs. Oppo had its own rollable phone concept in 2021, the Oppo X 2021, which rolled out similarly to the LG rollable, while Motorola previewed a “Moto Rizr” concept in 2023 that expands vertically. The technology for sliding/rollable phones has been around for a few years now; it’s just up to a company to actually put one out for sale, and it seems Samsung may be the first to take that bold step.
I prefer phones with vertical expandable displays, so I’m intrigued by the reported concept of the Samsung sliding phone. But with people still getting used to foldable phones, if I were Samsung, I wouldn’t rush to produce something like this.
