Future iPhones could be ROLLABLE, according to the latest Apple patent shows a smartphone that opens and closes like a fruit roll
Apple has yet to launch a foldable smartphone like rivals Samsung and Motorola, but the tech giant could be working on a first-ever rollable iPhone.
A new patent describes a device that looks like a fruit roll with a thin screen that folds around an axis when stored.
The rollable iPhone would have a protective layer of glass over the screen to protect it from scratches and other damage as it rolls and unrolls.
The document also suggested adding coatings to the outer shell, such as anti-smudge, anti-fog, anti-reflective and anti-static layers.
Apple is all set to launch its iPhone 15 in September, so if the company launches a rollable smartphone, it won’t be until 2024 at the earliest.
Apple has yet to launch a foldable smartphone like rivals Samsung and Motorola, but the tech giant could be working on a first-ever rollable iPhone.
However, Apple has obtained countless patents that never become real world technologies.
Regardless, the tech giants are an exciting window into what the future could be.
‘An electronic device can have a scrollable screen. The screen can be moved between an unrolled state in which the screen is flat and a rolled state in which a roll-up portion of the screen is rolled up for storage,” the patent says.
Describes the display that features a matrix of pixels to define the shape and color of digital images displayed on the screen.
The screen would also fold around an axis while rolling on a roller to be stored.
Apple suggests designing the inside of your smartphone with multiple layers to protect it from damage when you roll it up and down.
The first layer could be made of a coating, followed by another of polyimide, a type of plastic used in everything from aircraft components to sporting goods to adhesives.
And the outer layer would be the thinnest, made of a polymer that’s popular in Teflon-coated plastic bags, clothing, and cookware.
The screen would also fold around an axis while rolling on a roller to be stored.
Polymers are resistant and provide thermal and electrical insulation.
In this type of arrangement, the layer can help prevent relatively deep scratches in the layer from penetrating the outer surface of the glass layer, while the layer, which may be made of a harder polymer than the layer, can help protect the surface of the coat from being scratched. could create haze or other visible changes to the layer,” the patent says.
This isn’t Apple’s first patent to describe a rollable iPhone — the tech giant published another in 2020.
The document describes a flexible screen that ‘wraps around one or more rollers’, allowing the screen to be taken out of a ‘shell’ and rolled back up when not in use.
The patent, titled “Electronic Device With Flexible Display Structures,” was filed in December 2017 and published on March 24, 2020, as first reported by AppleInsider.
This isn’t Apple’s first patent to describe a rollable iPhone — the tech giant published another in 2020 (pictured)
“A device may have rollers that store a flexible screen and that help unfold the screen from within a casing when additional viewing area is desired,” the patent reads.
“A touch screen in a casing can be overlaid with a flexible screen that has been moved out of the casing.”
Apple’s new design is equipped with a wireless transmitter and receiver circuit that displays images on the screen in a pixel matrix format.
Magnets are also used on the cases on both sides “to help prevent a rolled flexible screen from wrinkling.”
However, Apple’s 2020 patent shows that the design would not be limited to iPhones, as rollable iPads are also discussed in the paper.
