14 DAY TRIAL // We've been talking about bendable tablets before and we’ve showed you some concepts detailing such possible products in the process.
And with the advances of flexible display technology, it shouldn't be long before a tablet that, let's say can be bent in half and act as a laptop, makes it out on the market.
But what if you could have a tablet with a screen that could be bent into a stand or a virtual keyboard, depending on the angle you’re positioning it? Wouldn't that be cool?
Samsung BEND is an innovative tablet concept
Visionary designer Robrecht Vanhauwere believes Samsung is the company with all the right tools to produce such a product at some point.
In his presentation slides, he argues that compared to Apple, Samsung is trying to innovate more and is heading towards unpaved directions in order to do so.
He names the Korean tech giant as one of the big pioneers in the touchscreen industry, highlighting their flexible and transparent touchscreen breakthroughs.
For this tablet concept, Vanhauwere has taken inspiration from several iconic objects like the Leica M9 camera and Apple Watch but also from items like a chair and a radio.
The result is quite beautiful and is unlike what we have seen before. Well, sort of. The main idea is that you can unfold the lower part of the flexible screen and arrange it in four different ways.
The BEND Tablet has four modes of use
The first one is with the screen standing straight up and body half-bend, which is said to be perfect for presentation and multi-tasking.
The screen can be bent in the opposite direction of the body or in the same direction as the body.
In the first scenario, you’ll be able to use the bottom part as a virtual keyboard, while in the second, you get to tuck the bottom screen under the frame of the tablet which will look like it’s standing upright. Lenovo Yoga tablets deja-vu, anyone?
It's definitely there, because the BEND tablet can be also arranged to sit in Tilt mode just like the Yogas.
Vanhauwere also imagines a totally different tablet UI for the Samsung BEND. According to the designer, it runs on a modified version of Android with a more visually pleasing interface than Samsung’s own TouchWiz UI, which has received its fair share of critique.
More than that, BEND takes inspiration from the revolutionary Samsung Galaxy Edge smartphone, offering you a quick glance to your notifications set, which are displayed on a side panel.
When users swipe their finger over the edge to the bottom of the screen, BEND will promptly load up the app.
Vanhauwere says the tablet has the dimensions of a sheet of A4 paper in order to ensure it will fit in your bag.
So what do you think? Do you see yourself having a tablet such as this?
