FROM the days of the flip phone to foldables, smartphone manufacturers have been attempting to move away from the rectangle for a while now.

One of the more curious new concepts we’ve seen recently is the ‘rollable’ – and it seems the first could finally arrive this year, courtesy of LG.

Revealed last week, the imaginatively titled LG Rollable has a display that can expand from traditional smartphone size to something more akin to a small tablet.

And best of all, there’s not a hinge or folding mechanism in sight — the whole process looks like, well, magic.

LG revealed very little about the device during its virtual CES 2021 presentation but did go so far as to give us a brief front-on view of the phone at the very end of the event, demonstrating the rolling mechanism in action.

Several phone companies are exploring the concept of foldable phones, from Samsung’s Galaxy Fold to Apple’s intriguing foldable screen patents, but the rollable is much more uncharted territory.

The benefits for creatives could be game-changing, though — users could literally unroll a larger digital canvas when required.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine a rollable becoming the first smartphone to rival our best drawing tablets.

Time will tell whether, unlike foldable phones, rollables will prove useful and reliable enough to become the new normal.