BOE reports that its 5mm flexible display tech is now in mass production

As phones, tablets and even laptops move away from typical rigid slab-like constructions, display panels that can withstand the potential punishment of form-factors that are intended to fold (or worn, or maybe even roll up) regularly may become a component of demand.

BOE is one company that may stand to supply this need. A panel it has developed that has just won a Beijing Science and Technology Progress Special Award may be an example of the display material of the future. It is called R5 200,000, where R5 refers to its spec of a bending radius as low as 5mm and 200000 refers to the number of times it can withstand being folded to this extent.

Then again, this R5 200,000 is an outward-facing panel, which means its active (image-showing) side is still visible as it goes through all these folds, whereas most of the flexible-display devices of today do so in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, the company has reportedly announced that this same product is ready for manufacture at a commercial scale.

It will be no stranger to distributing it, either: BOE's flexible AMOLED displays reportedly accounted for 20.3% of all shipments in this market since their own transition to mass production. Those panels have been bought by companies such as Huawei, LG, Motorola, Nubia and OPPO thus far. Therefore, R5 200.000 may see just as much success in the near future.