Beyond the Galaxy Z Fold: Samsung’s Future Phone Concepts That Roll, Slide and Expand
Over the years, phone makers have introduced stretchable, bendable and folding phones. But inside a secret room at Samsung Display’s headquarters in South Korea — which had never been open to the media — I got a first-hand look at the company’s vision for the future of smartphones.
Along one wall sat a series of displays that could lead to future mobile devices. I wasn’t allowed to touch the prototypes, but they were mounted on machines that repeatedly bent, folded and folded displays, showing their range of motion.
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Consumer technology shows like CES and Mobile World Congress have become stages for companies to show off their most ambitious creations — many of which never see the light of day. However, they show how manufacturers are exploring ways to make our devices more intuitive and compelling. Samsung is one of the biggest players in the foldable phone market, having released the clamshell-style Flip, the book-style Fold and the tablet hybrid Galaxy Z TriFold. The company is expected to launch the Galaxy Z 8 series next week at its Galaxy Unpacked event.
When I visited Samsung’s global headquarters in June, I got a rare behind-the-scenes look at what the company is like. reviews its latest mobile displaysand an exclusive preview of what may follow. Samsung didn’t share the displayed specs of their concept, but here’s what I saw during my visit — and what it could mean for your future phone.
The Flex S folds into a Z shape.
One concept, called the Flex S, opens and closes in a Z shape (not to be confused with the Galaxy Z TriFold, which makes a C shape and folds up like a leaflet). The Flex S sports a tablet-sized display, which would be perfect for watching movies. That’s what I liked about TriFold, which I reviewed when I was recovering from strep throat. Lying in bed, I’m glad to have a bigger streaming screen that I can roll up and close when I’m done.
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Out Foldable has screens on the outside of both panels.
Another prototype, called Out Foldable, resembles the style of a folding book. Instead of putting a larger display inside, as Samsung did with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, the design puts both screens outside and opens up into a wider, tablet-like design, similar to other early folds like the 2019 Huawei Mate X.
This is a configuration I’m a little wary of for a few reasons. First, it can be difficult to avoid scratching or cracking the outer wrap display. And secondly, I’m not sure I really need a touchscreen display on the back of my phone. But I have to admit, it looks cool anyway.
The Flex Slidable (right) can be stretched horizontally.
The Flex Slidable does as the name suggests. It can go out to a wide screen, which can be useful for playing games or watching videos.
My first thought when I saw this concept was, “LG is rolling in its grave right now.” (Pun intended.) The company teased a rollable smartphone at CES 2021, but the product was canceled after the company shut down its mobile division a few months later. In 2023, Motorola also revealed the concept of a flexible smartphone with a screen that expands upwards, and its parent company, Lenovo, showed laptop concepts at this year’s CES that expand horizontally and vertically. We’ll have to see if Samsung’s ideas make it outside the lab.
The Flex Hybrid can fold and unfold to a wide screen.
Finally, Samsung combined elements from its other concepts to create what it calls the Flex Hybrid. This model can be folded open and extended with a roll-up display. This makes for a more compact design while ensuring you don’t damage the screen.
A foldable device with a rollable part offers more screen real estate without adding so much bulk. One of the biggest issues with the Galaxy Z TriFold is that it feels thick when its three display panels are folded closed. This approach would eliminate the need for an additional folding panel, instead using a display that pops out when you need more space and retracts when you don’t.
Along with these concepts there were a few that caught my eye — literally, in the case of one device that had an amazing 5,000-nit high brightness. As a reference, the Galaxy S26 Ultra can reach a maximum brightness of 2,600 nits. It was a lot of viewing indoors, but that level of brightness can make it easy to view your screen in bright sunlight.
Viewing a 5,000-nit display indoors may not be comfortable, but it may be useful in outdoor lighting.
Finally, I saw a mobile phone display with a bezel so thin it was almost invisible. To highlight how narrow the 0.6mm borders around the screen were, Samsung placed a phone-sized concept device on top of a tablet display. The two screens are combined to create a single image of the cathedral windows. From a distance, it was difficult to see that there was even a phone inside the tablet; the image appeared seamless, not disturbed by the thick borders of the wire.
With bezels this thin, it’s hard to see that there’s a mobile display in the center of this tablet.
A flexible display that stretches from one side of the phone to the other would feel a lot more immersive, but I also wonder how tricky it would be to hold the device without tapping something on the screen.
As with all concepts, it is unclear when Samsung will use this display technology in its future mobile devices. But seeing these ideas offered a rare and fascinating glimpse of where smartphones could be headed.
