Deep Dive
Why LG failed and what they left behind
Marques opens by diagnosing LG's death: they kept shipping experimental phones without a reliable cash cow to keep the lights on. The company was known for wild ideas—the LG Wing with its motorized T-shaped dual display, the G8X with its attachable second-screen case featuring a 180-degree hinge, the Mi Mix Alpha-style concept with wrap-around display. But between 2021 and their shutdown, rumors circulated about one final trick: a rollable phone that never materialized. Now in 2026, thanks to dbrand's mysterious sourcing, Marques has the only hands-on look at this ghost product. He immediately establishes the stakes: this is LG's most ambitious phone form factor yet.
How the rollable mechanism actually works
The basic pitch is simple: close it and you have a normal 6.7-inch phone; three-finger swipe and it rolls open to become a squatter 7.4-inch mini-tablet. The jump from 6.7 to 7.4 inches sounds modest on paper, but the aspect ratio shift is dramatic. Every time you roll it, speakers play a covering sound designed to mask the motor noise—an engineer's futile attempt to hide the mechanical whine, like coughing during an awkward moment. The real trick is storage: the extra screen hides in plain sight by curving over the phone's right edge behind a metal rail. Flip it over and you see the rest of the display wrapping to the back. LG went full commitment and used clear glass on the rear panel so you can see the curved display, and they even enabled software tricks to use it—messages, camera UI for selfies with the primary cameras.
The engineering constraints and button problem
With a curved, rollable design, there's no room for traditional buttons on the sides. LG solved this by making the volume controls pressure-sensitive areas at the top where buttons normally sit, and put the power button on the back where it doubles as the fingerprint reader under the cameras. It sounds awkward but Marques found it surprisingly reachable in practice. The real visual story is how far they got in the software experience. The lock screen animates like a blooming flower when expanded and collapses back to a single petal when closed. The Settings app slides over new columns when you open it and retracts them when you close. These aren't throwaway details—they signal LG was past prototype phase and thinking about how the form factor should actually feel.
The durability and practical tradeoffs
The motors are genuinely impressive, strong enough to push a 16-inch MacBook Pro across a table and sophisticated enough to auto-close if you squeeze the phone hard to prevent damage. But durability is a minefield. The visible gear teeth at the top and bottom, air gaps, and constantly exposed flexible display rule out any real water or dust resistance. Marques notes there's likely no IP rating because LG never got to market it. Compared to modern foldables where the screen is protected when closed, the rollable leaves the display perpetually exposed. There's still a subtle crease because the display curves over a larger radius to roll to the side—theoretically an advantage over foldables' tight-radius creases, but still not the zero-crease utopia the form factor promised. The 4,500mAh battery and 12GB RAM specs matter less than what Zack from JerryRigEverything uncovered: two motors and three spring-loaded arms orchestrating the entire opening sequence.
LG's legacy and what comes next
LG got insanely far in the development process—this is functional hardware with working software and special features, not a render or prototype. They just ran out of money before shipping. Marques credits LG as the only company bold enough to actually attempt something like this, though Samsung is reportedly still working on a rollable smartphone. Whether Samsung ships it this year or later, the unreleased LG rollable serves as proof that the idea works and that rolling, not folding, might be the next form factor battle. For now, this phone exists only in the hands of a few reviewers and in LG's corporate graveyard.