Samsung has already tried almost every possible shape in the world of foldables – clamshell, book, dual screens, and even stretchable concepts – but a new patent revealed now presents an especially ambitious direction: A rollable smartphone where the rear camera also becomes part of the device's moving mechanism.
The patent, revealed on the WearView website in collaboration with leaker @xleaks7, displays a device in the style of the Galaxy Z Rollable with a screen that opens horizontally. In its closed state, it looks like a relatively regular smartphone – a tall screen, a selfie camera in the center, and a fairly standard front. But the moment the screen opens, the entire body expands and becomes a sort of small tablet.
The truly interesting part is actually located on the back of the device. According to the diagrams, the rear camera module is positioned on a moving part of the phone's body. When the screen opens, the camera unit also slides out together with the entire structure. When the device closes, the cameras return into a sort of dedicated slot in the frame.
At Samsung, they are not settling here for just a design gimmick. According to the patent description, the mechanism is intended to allow the device to understand the position of the parts during opening and closing – Including camera adjustment, sensors, and even future AR functions. In other words, the company is testing how dynamic hardware can work together with a flexible screen.
Visually, this gives the device a much more futuristic look than regular Fold devices. Instead of a fixed, familiar back, the entire rear section changes together with the screen's movement. If Samsung does indeed present this in practice, it is likely one of the most visually prominent devices the company has produced in recent years.
This direction does not come out of nowhere either. Samsung Display has already presented several prototypes for rollable and stretchable screens in the past, including a concept named Slidable Flex Duet that can grow from 8.1 inches to 12.4 inches. At the same time, rumors have been circulating for a while about a future device named Galaxy Z Roll or Galaxy Z Rollable.
As of now, there is no official confirmation of a launch, date, or specifications. As always with patents, not every idea becomes a real product. But in this case, it seems that Samsung continues to search for the "next thing" after the era of foldables – And the big question is whether it will succeed in turning such a complex mechanism into something durable enough for daily use.