Crazy stretchy screen could kill the crease we all hate

The advancement of technology is an inexorable tide that halts for no one, but amidst changes that often make only basic changes, comes a few that make our jaw drop. We’ve seen folding screens already, and rollable screens are on their way, but what about screens that stretch?

LG Display has showed off an amazing screen that is normally 12-inches in size, but can be stretched out to 18 inches without damage, and as it bends and curves, there’s no crease in sight. A crease in the screen has been considered an eyesore on folding phones since they arrived, but a stretchable screen could make them a thing of the past.

While this technology’s use in phones immediately comes to mind, LG showed it working as part of a car’s dashboard and on items of clothing. We can also envisage it being used to create wrap-around screens on smartwatches and other wearables.  It’s not the first time LG has spent time bending and stretching screens either. In 2018 LG debuted a 65-inch TV that could roll up like a poster, and before it left the mobile world it was working on a concept rollable phone. In 2022 it demonstrated a similar stretchable display, but it could only stretch up to 120% of its original size. This new version can reach 150% without distorting the image.

The technology is new and exciting, but we still have a long way to go before it’s readily available to everyone. LG is off to a good start with this prototype, though. It can be stretched and released more than 10,000 times and is powered by microLEDs as small as 40 micrometers in size. To put that in perspective, the average human hair is somewhere around 70 micrometers in length. There’s plenty of potential for this kind of display and we’re eager to see how it changes in the future, and where it may make its first real-world appearance.