Samsung dual-slider patent takes expanding phones to the extreme

Flexible screens have opened up all sorts of creative options for phone designers, but some of the ideas we have seen border on the bizarre.

The latest, from Samsung, the king of foldable, is what LetsGoDigital calls the Samsung Dual Slider.

Spotted in a May 21, 2021 patent recently published, the device would expand either vertically or horizontally (or both), depending on your preference.

The patent, “Electronic device including display having plurality of states and method for controlling same”, was published today by WIPO and does not spend much time on the internals.

From previous designs, however, we can assume there are rolls of screen on both the top and left side of the device which can be unfurled via a motor, activated by a button or swipe gesture.

The device can expand up to 30% in width and up to 25% in height. The design places the front and rear-facing camera at the top right corner of the device, where they are not affected by the screen movements.

The patent notes that rotating the device could allow these extended segments to be used as virtual keyboards, for example, evoking shades of the LG Wing.

The extra screen can also be used to display other apps (e.g. messaging, camera, photo gallery etc) and thereby improve multi-tasking, again very reminiscent of the LG Wing.

A patent of course does not mean a device will come to market, and I suspect the audience for such a complex device will be very small, but it is good to see designers flex their creative muscles outside the usual concept device designers.

The full patent can be seen here.