YOUM based flexible OLED TV at 55 inches. (via CES Las Vegas)
After a few years of development, Samsung is finally ready to bring their flexible curved OLED display technology to manufactures. We could very well see them incorporated into the next generation of mobile devices in the coming years. In a keynote speech at this year’s CES, CEO Stephen Woo unveiled their new display technology dubbed ‘YOUM’ with several concept devices, including smartphones and tablets (notably the Google Nexus 10) that feature extreme flexibility and outfitted with the new Exynos 5 Octa processor. Yes, the Octa designation means it is in fact an 8 core processor that uses ARM’s big.LITTLE processing technology, which not only makes the chip more powerful (over the Exynos 4) and efficient but reduces its overall appetite for power consumption. The processor is actually 2 separate quad-core CPUs with 1 ARM Cortex-A15 (with 4 cores), which handles all the heavy games and apps and a lower-powered Cortex-A7 (also with four cores), handling the everyday tasks such as SMS, web-surfing and taking pictures and video. The YOUM displays feature OLEDs, which create their own light and therefore don’t require a thick medium (such as glass) to be embedded alongside. This means they can be incorporated into a thin sheet of plastic and bent into almost any form, which makes them not only more robust and damage resistant but with the same level of clarity found in most of today’s mobile devices.
One example of Samsung’s extreme screen technology was depicted in a mini commercial (of sorts) presented by Woo, which featured a person using a tablet that was able to be folded in half (like a book) and converted into a smartphone. It would be amazing to make a perfect 90 degree fold, but that might be too good to be true (Imagine the whole new world of Origami after that!). Their flexible displays aren’t limited to mobile device only, as the company’s booth features the world’s first curved OLED TV (unknown as to size but looks to be about 55 inches). The display uses the same YOUM technology slated for mobile devices, but offers viewers an IMAX-like panoramic full-HD experience in the home. Indeed the future looks curved thanks to Samsung. They hope to see their technology incorporated into next-gen mobile devices at the end of this year or sometime in early 2014.
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