Flexible and bendable displays to hit the mainstream next year, according to Korean researcher

Earlier this year, both Samsung and LG released smartphones with curved displays. Samsung was the first to do it, launching the Galaxy Round , but making it hard to find outside South Korea. On the other hand, LG’s smartphone, called G Flex , was introduced one month later, and yet it’s already seeing an almost global roll out (the US should get it early next year). 

However, devices with truly flexible displays are still things of the future.Although it’s probably a very near future. 

Kim Yun-hi, leading researcher and Chemistry professor at the Gyeongsang National University (one of South Korea’s 10 Flagship National Universities) believes that smart devices which can be folded and rolled up are bound to become widely available starting next year. Interestingly, Kim Yun-hi told The Korea Herald that she's expecting upcoming generations of Google’s Glass and Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch to be released “within a couple years” sporting fully flexible displays. 

The professor’s expectations are based on the fact that she and a group of researchers have developed organic polymers that could overcome the limitations of current technologies .

“The flexible displays [available now] do not deserve their name since they were just stretched by force into a curved shape,” Kim said.

But the newly-developed organic polymers provide better pliability and stability than what’s now out there, and also feature “a record-high level of charge-carrying mobility”. So Korean researchers hope that these can pave the way to lighter and cheaper flexible devices.

Reportedly, Kim Yun-hi has already received calls from unnamed global chemical and display firms which are seeking to use the new technology in their flexible OLED panels.

Sure enough, “seeing is believing” is the best approach that we can take regarding all this. But things seem to go in the right direction anyway, so we’re just going to say that the future’s bright... and flexible.