CES 2021: LG shows off expanding smartphone and bendable TV

An expandable smartphone, self-emptying vacuum cleaner and bendable TV are among the innovative creations unveiled during the first day on the online-only CES tech show.

The convention was forced to go fully virtual this year as a result of the pandemic, meaning South Korean tech giant LG had to demonstrate its new prototype products to the media through a series of videos.

While the company’s smartphone sales have suffered in recent years at the hands of rivals Samsung and Apple, LG is hoping to reinvigorate interest in its handsets by making them expandable.

From foldables to rollables?

The LG Rollable smartphone sports a screen that grows larger as its far edges slide up and outwards, expanding the flexible display and increasing the surface area for watching videos or playing games on.

While only a concept at present, LG is marketing the LG Rollable as the next logical step from the foldable smartphones that Samsung and Huawei have been selling since 2018.

The company previously demonstrated a rollable 65-inch OLED TV that unrolled from a rectangular box at CES in 2018, and this year revealed a 48-inch OLED gaming TV capable of bending from a conventional flat screen to a curved display intended to help gamers to feel more immersed in a virtual world.

The prototype set, known as the Bendable Cinematic Sound OLED, or CSO, can bend up to a radius of 1,000mm without affecting the screen.

Pressing a button set into the TV’s stand once causes the outer edges to gently curve inwards, while pressing it again returns it to its standard shape.

Multi-purpose home cleaning equipment

A cordless vacuum cleaner that automatically empties its own dustbin and doubles as a mop was another outlandish product that attracted attention among LG’s roster of gadgets.

Once the LG CordZeroThinQ A9 Kompressor+ is slotted into its charging station, a fully-automated dust removal system sucks the contents of the vacuum’s bin container into the station, where it’s collected into an attached dust bag.

A mop attachment transforms the cleaner into a powerful mop for cleaning wooden and other hard floors.

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What to expect from CES 2021: The world’s largest tech show goes online-only

Elsewhere, the company also showcased a retractable 55-inch screen with 40 per cent transparency that rises out of the frame at the foot of a smart bed. 

The same transparent screens could be used to display maps and schedules as they update on a train window, acting as a partition in a restaurant that shows pictures of the food available on the menu or to greet shoppers as they approach sliding glass doors in shopping malls or airports.

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