Foldable phones are at the peak of mobile tech innovation today. They fit large displays into pocket-friendly footprints in ways we could once only dream of. And yet, after six years of iteration and refinement, even the best foldable phones are still having a hard time drawing the market’s attention away from familiar form factors. It’s tempting to wonder if anything better is coming.
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Well, perhaps the next big thing could already be peeking from around the corner. Rumor has it that Samsung is planning to launch its first rollable phone in 2025, and it could very well be the first rollable phone on the market. Rivals like Motorola, Oppo, and Tecno are also among the companies experimenting with the new form factor, so a wave of rollables might be on its way.
So, will 2025 be the year of the rollable phone? Will this be the form factor to fix the flaws of foldables and make things exciting again? Let’s explore.
What is a rollable phone?
The potential successor to foldable phones
A rollable phone has a flexible OLED display that wraps around one of its edges and extends when extra screen space is needed. When it is not, the screen is tucked away, and the handset returns to its more compact state. The idea behind rollable form factors is similar to that of modern foldables: to put a relatively large display on a phone that fits in a pocket.
If you’re wondering why you’ve never seen a rollable phone, that’s because there aren’t any on sale yet. However, several companies have shown concept devices demonstrating how a rollable phone may appear and function.
What types of rollable phones are possible?
The rollable phone concepts we’ve seen so far fall into two categories. One takes a phone of typical size and makes it shrink vertically to become more compact. This is how the Motorola Rizr rollable phone concept rolls. Pictured above, you can see how the device’s display wraps around the bottom and covers part of the back. Its screen measures 5 inches along the diagonal when rolled up and 6.5 inches when fully unfurled.
Other concepts take the opposite approach. The Tecno Phantom Ultimate has a 6.5-inch display when retracted. It extends to a 7.1-inch screen diagonal at the press of a button. Doesn’t sound like much, I know, but according to my back-of-the-napkin calculation, this gives you roughly 40% more screen area.
What are the pros and cons of rollable phones?
And how do rollables compare to foldables?
Judging by the prototypes we’ve seen so far, rollable phones may bring several advantages over foldables. For starters, all the working concepts shown feature a motorized mechanism to extend and retract the rollable display — either automatically or at the press of a button. Not only is there nothing to fold and unfold manually. You can have the screen unroll itself if the content on the screen calls for it — when watching a full-screen video, for example.
Secondly, there’s no need for a secondary cover display on a rollable phone because part of the flexible OLED remains visible and usable at all times. Meanwhile, the section tucked around the back can be used to show notifications. The lack of a folding mechanism also means there’s no crease running down the middle of the screen.
All of these advantages make rollable phones seem like a natural evolution of today’s foldables. However, there are a lot of issues they have yet to address.
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The drawbacks of rollable phones
As with foldable phones, the durability of rollable phones remains a concern. That motor-driven mechanism is bound to fail at some point, especially when complete water and dust resistance would be difficult to achieve. Having the flexible screen exposed constantly suggests that scratching it is practically inevitable.
The hardware enabling the rolling action would take up space. As a result, thin rollables could be difficult to make, and fitting an adequately sized battery could be a challenge. For reference, the Tecno Phantom Ultimate concept mentioned earlier is 10mm thick – thinner than popular foldables, but thicker than a typical phone. All the added complexity would surely have an effect on the price – we can’t see rollable phones being cheap, or at least not at first.
Which companies are working on rollable phones?
More companies than you think are exploring rollables
Samsung
One of the first rollable phones on the market may come from Samsung. Rumors out of South Korea claim a Samsung rollable phone could launch in 2025, presumably with the rumored triple-folding Samsung phone. It could also be the largest among foldable and rollable phones, rocking a 12.4-inch display when fully extended. Even the triple-folding Huawei Mate XT opens up to “only” reveal a 10.2-inch screen.
We have no images of Samsung’s rollable device. The video above comes from Samsung Display and shows a rollable screen switching between 49mm (1.9 inches) and 254.4mm (10 inches) in length. However, the company has acknowledged that it is “preparing a new form factor,” without clarifying what that is.
Motorola
In 2023, we had the chance to go hands-on with the Motorola rollable phone concept. At the time, it clearly had kinks to be ironed out, but it didn’t look like an early prototype either, so expectations of a commercial launch were realistic.
Alas, Motorola has not yet announced any plans to release a rollable phone. On the other hand, hopes are still high, especially when Moto’s parent company, Lenovo, seems keen on the rollable display technology. According to well-known leaker Evan Blass, Lenovo may announce a laptop with a rollable display at CES 2025.
Tecno
Tecno is far from a household name in the west, but the growing company already has several foldables under its belt. It announced the Tecno Phantom Ultimate rollable phone concept in 2023 and showed a working version to journalists in 2024. However, Tecno has not announced any plans to put a rollable phone on sale. These might be on hold for now, seeing that the Tecno Phantom Ultimate 2 concept adopts a tri-fold form factor.
Oppo
Oppo was one of the first smartphone brands to present a rollable phone concept. The Oppo X 2021 wowed us in 2020, and a few lucky journalists were able to go hands-on with the device in 2021. Unfortunately, a commercial variant of the device never materialized. Since then, there have been no clues pointing to an Oppo rollable phone launching anytime soon.
Honorable mention: LG
In a story of missed opportunities, LG came close to launching a rollable phone in 2021. The company released a teaser video briefly showing the device and planned to fully announce it at CES. Sadly, LG pulled the plug on its smartphone business before the LG Rollable could see the light of day. The video above is of an early unit and demonstrates what we could have had in an alternate universe. We miss you, LG!
Will 2025 be the year of rollable phones?
A powerful new form factor or a flash in the pan?
Answering this question with certainty is tricky when there’s practically no confirmation from anywhere of a rollable phone launching in 2025. Still, the rumors paint an exciting picture. A rollable phone, especially from a trusted brand with a global presence like Samsung, might bring welcome variety and excitement to a largely predictable smartphone market. Better yet, other companies may be motivated to follow suit.
Whether the new form factor will be a hit is a different story. On the one hand, rollable phones have the potential to solve some of the flaws of current foldables. On the other hand, they may fail to address two of the biggest challenges foldables face. One is convincing a critical mass of people they’re worth the premium price. We don’t know how much a rollable phone would cost, but we doubt it would be cheap. And secondly, anyone concerned about a rollable screen’s durability would be right to be.
Perhaps the best way to look at rollable phones and their potential arrival is with cautious optimism. Any company willing to launch an innovative product to questionable demand deserves praise for taking the risk, and we, as consumers, have only to benefit from having more options. And if rollables turn out to be a dud, we’ll always have the familiar and safe bets like the Samsung Galaxy S25 series and its peers.
