Almost every major phone maker, from Samsung to Oppo and Motorola, has released a foldable phone. Those that aren’t—Apple and Google—are rumored to be working on it.
But at CES 2023, foldable tablets piqued my curiosity. Samsung and LG, two of the world’s biggest display makers, showed off tablet-like devices in various shapes and sizes that can bend, fold, slide or do all three.
These concepts made me wonder if there is a real future for foldable tablets, especially at a time when companies are struggling to sell traditional tablets. However, it’s clear that companies like Samsung and LG are thinking about it, as are PC makers like Lenovo and Acer.
The more I’ve thought about it, the more a foldable tablet makes sense – maybe even more than a foldable phone.
Samsung and LG’s foldable concepts at CES 2023
Both Samsung and LG kicked off CES 2023 with announcements of their concept foldable displays, many of which come in tablet-sized formats. The star of the show was Samsung’s Flex Hybrid, a concept you have to see to fully understand.
Samsung showed off its concept displays at CES 2023.
David Katzmeier/CNET
It closes like a notebook and opens to reveal a tablet-like screen. But the real wow factor is that you can increase the size of the screen and even change its aspect ratio when it’s unfolded. The right side of the screen slides out, expanding the display size from 10.5 inches to 12.4 inches. In a demonstration at its CES booth, Samsung showed how the display automatically adjusts to show more content when the screen is extended.
This is not the first time that Samsung has put forward such concepts. In 2022, Samsung boasted accordion-like displays and sliding screens, designs that are present this year as well.
Samsung has other ideas for shape-shifting tablets. It also showed off the Flex Slidable Duet concept at CES, a screen that expands on both sides to provide more viewing area for gaming or watching movies. The display measures 13 to 14 inches, but is expandable to 17.3 inches, according to a Samsung press release. There’s also a version of this concept that can only extend its screen in one direction, a device Samsung aptly calls the Flex Slidable Solo.
LG’s concept for a 17-inch foldable tablet-like display.
David Katzmeier/CNET
LG unveiled two main foldable tablet concepts at CES: an 8-inch tablet that can be folded inward and outward in both directions, and a 17-inch device that folds in half. LG claims the 17-inch display is almost completely bezel-less, and the company is positioning it as either a giant tablet or a more portable external laptop monitor.
The gadgets shown at CES are far from the first foldable tablets. There’s Lenovo’s X1 Fold and the newer ThinkPad X1 Fold, while Asus has the Zenbook Fold OLED. LG’s 17-inch concept largely looks like it’s trying to achieve the same goal that Lenovo and Asus have already begun to explore with these devices.
The big question is whether these companies can convince consumers that foldable tablets are useful at all. Samsung seems to be trying to solve this conundrum by developing screens that can change shape and size to fit how you use your device. Based on Samsung’s demo of the Flex Hybrid, it looks like you’ll be able to see content that wasn’t visible before when you unfold the sliding part of the screen. The clip above appears to show a shopping website as an example, with more products being displayed as the screen expands.
Lenovo already has some interesting ideas on how to put the X1 Fold’s bendable screen to good use. When the screen is folded in half, you can place the Lenovo Bluetooth Keyboard on the bottom half of the screen to function as a mini laptop.
Samsung isn’t the only company experimenting with slide-and-roll displays, either. TCL and Motorola have come up with similar smartphone design concepts, though Samsung’s looks closer to an actual product given its experience with foldable devices. Samsung is also the world’s largest smartphone maker and the second largest tablet maker, making its concepts seem more impressive than those of TCL and Motorola. Although LG is no longer present in the mobile industry, it is a major supplier of displays and still manufactures its own laptops.
Foldable tablets may have advantages over foldable phones
Having a phone that can be folded in half to fit easily in your pocket can certainly come in handy. But a tablet that can do the same thing is even better, mostly for the simple reason that tablets are inherently bigger than most phones.
There’s another advantage: foldable tablets may not face all the same design challenges that bendable phones have faced so far. For example, one of my biggest complaints about the Galaxy Z Fold range is that it sometimes feels awkward to use when closed. The flip screen has improved significantly since the first Galaxy Fold arrived in 2019, but it still doesn’t come close to the feel of a standard non-folding phone.
The Galaxy Z Fold also looks bulky when closed, as it’s essentially the thickness of two phones stacked on top of each other. When I reviewed Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2 in 2021, I struggled to find a comfortable way to hold it when taking pictures with the main camera, since you have to hold the phone unfolded to see what you’re shooting.
The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is still thick compared to a regular phone.
Kevin Heinz/CNET
These drawbacks may not be as big of an issue with foldable tablets. Unlike phones, you probably won’t be using a tablet in one hand most of the time. An external display on a foldable tablet, if there is one at all, won’t matter that much because you’ll probably be using the device unfolded. The foldable tablets I’ve seen so far don’t even have roof screens.
Apart from the selfie camera for video chats, the camera quality is also not as important on a tablet as on a phone. So the awkwardness issue I mentioned when taking photos with the Surface Duo 2 probably won’t happen on a foldable tablet.
The main appeal behind foldable tablets from Samsung, LG, Lenovo and Acer – concept or not – is portability. Having a tablet that folds in half makes it easier to slip into a backpack, suitcase or bag on your next flight, commute or beach. But the phones are already compact in their current form, which means the value proposition behind phones like the Galaxy Z Fold might be a bit harder to sell.
That’s not to say that foldable tablets are immune to design issues, as my colleague Dan Ackerman wrote when testing Lenovo and Acer devices. Creating larger displays that bend and fold likely presents a set of engineering challenges compared to foldable phones.
Foldable phones are also growing faster, with market researcher IDC predicting a 66.6% annual increase in global shipments in 2022. So while foldable phones may have various hurdles to overcome, companies like Samsung have managed to with these points through several generations of products so far.
Tablets need a refresh
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8.
Josh Goldman/CNET
Tablet sales surged during the early phase of the pandemic as people socialized, worked and attended school virtually. But sales looked dismal last year. Global tablet shipments fell 8.8% year over year in the third quarter of 2022, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of decline, according to IDC. This decline is mostly due to economic difficulties as consumers want to spend less, the report said.
New tablets with changeable displays may not be enough to change that, especially since foldable devices tend to be expensive. But tablets are still long overdue for an update. Arguably the biggest transformation of the tablet since the launch of the first iPad has been the shift to laptop-tablet hybrid devices, a transition that began about a decade ago around the debut of Windows 8. But tablets haven’t changed much since then, other than adapting to larger screens and receiving routine hardware upgrades.
It took years for these hybrid devices to work out their kinks and become a mainstay in our lives. If foldable tablets take off, the case is likely to be the same, mostly due to high prices and software challenges. But the concepts…
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