At the purely virtual Display Week 2021, Samsung Display has numerous new OLED screens in its luggage that could be used in future devices such as smartphones, tablets and notebooks. The prototypes include multiply foldable, particularly large, one-time foldable and pull-out OLED screens.
Samsung's display division shows, among other things, the “S-Foldable” (article image above), a multiply foldable OLED display that could be used in multiply foldable smartphones. The name of the screen is derived from the multiple bends in the letter “S”. One part of the screen folds inward and the other folds outward. When fully opened, the S-Foldable has a diagonal of 7.2 inches. A year ago, TCL showed a similar prototype with a zigzag hinge.
Foldable 17-inch screen
At up to 17 inches, the “17-inch foldable” is significantly larger and can be converted from a tablet in 4: 3 format to a screen. The OLED screen can be folded vertically in the middle, which Samsung describes as “Carrying Small, Seeing Big”. A prototype shown by Samsung shows how Microsoft PowerPoint is executed on the left half of the screen and Word on the right half.
Smartphone with pull-out display
The “Slidable” is a pull-out OLED display that can be enlarged horizontally by extending an area of the screen previously hidden in the device using servomotors or by pulling it out manually. A smartphone in a comparatively normal format can be expanded by a few centimeters for more screen space, for example for multitasking. Similar implementations were previously shown by Oppo with the “X 2021” and again by TCL.
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One-time vertically foldable OLED screen with 17 inches (Image: Samsung Display)
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One-time, vertically foldable 17-inch OLED screen 
Slidable OLED screen for smartphones 
Under Panel Camera with a notebook Camera behind the panel
For Display Week, the company is also showing the “Under Panel Camera”, or UPC for short. As the name suggests, the front camera of this OLED panel is no longer built into a notch or punch hole – unlike what is usual nowadays – but behind the screen, which is more permeable at this point, so that the camera can take pictures can. Samsung is by no means the first company to do research on this technology. According to rumors, future Samsung smartphones could be equipped with this type of panel. At Display Week, however, Samsung is showing the technology using a notebook.