In Samsung’s vision for the future, foldable tablets and slidable displays conquer the world

One of my favorite parts of CES is unveiling wacky display technology that will probably never be used in consumer products. Right cue, Samsung Display, the South Korean tech giant’s screen division, has revealed a prototype 18.1-inch foldable OLED display. This is a step up from the 17.3 foldable display it showed off a few years ago.

The tech giant isn’t known to be working on a consumer version of the tech, but this is the second time Samsung has shown off a foldable OLED display at CES. The current prototype, which runs Windows, turns into a 13.1-inch laptop with touchscreen functionality when folded, and when unfolded, the screen becomes a sprawling 18.1-inch display. Samsung Display supplies the screens for foldable devices like Asus’ ZenBook 17 Fold, so it’s possible we could see this 18.1-inch foldable OLED in a future Asus tablet or laptop. Samsung also showed off a few other interesting display concepts at CES 202025.

Samsung also revealed cool slideable display concepts

It’s unclear if any of these concepts will make their way to a consumer product

Samsung

Along with its foldable OLED screen, Samsung revealed three slidable OLED concept devices at CES 2025: the Slidable Flex Duet, Slidable Flex Solo, and Slidable Flex Vertical. To be clear, I’ve seen Samsung showcase at least some of these concepts at CES in the past, so they aren’t entirely new.

The Slidable Flex Duet extends from both sides, shifting from an 8.1-inch screen to a 12.4-inch tablet. On the other hand, the Slidable Flex Solo transforms from a 5.1-inch smartphone to a slightly bigger 6.7-inch screen. Finally, the Slidable Flex Solo extends from just one side, turning its 13-inch screen into a 17.3-inch display.

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The Slidable Flex Duet seems like the most practical of the concepts since it slides into a much bigger tablet, but it would also likely be costly for Samsung Display to produce at scale. If I had to guess, the only concept that might make it into a consumer device is the Flex Solo, which gives you a display that’s just a bit bigger when it’s extended.

Like its folding OLED concept, it’s possible you could see these folding smartphone prototypes adopted by other smartphone manufacturers, given that Samsung Display provides the screens for a lot of high-end smartphones, including Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro.