Samsung Galaxy Skin has demonstrated bendable AMOLED screens 4.5 inches across and just 0.3mm thick in January 2011.

Reports this week hint that Samsung Galaxy Skin using the technology – which can be “rolled up” and survive hammer blows – will appear in the second quarter of 2012.

The new Samsung Galaxy Skin technology relies on atom-thick layers of “graphene” – sheets of carbon atoms – sandwiched together, protecting a layer of liquid crystal “screen”.

Samsung Galaxy Skin phone is so flexible you can roll it up

Earlier this year, reports leaked that Samsung had the capacity to manufacture large amounts of the screen by “early 2012” – but no one knew what they might be for.

Samsung later released pictures of a concept phone using the technology – the Galaxy Skin.

The phone would be no mere novelty.

Phones using Graphene screens would be practically unbreakable, and offer an instant advantage over every other smartphone on the market.

Layers of Graphene - atom-thick layers of carbon - are used to create paper-thin foldable screens in the Samsung Galaxy Skin

Now, according to reports in the International Business Times, Samsung Galaxy Skin could be on sale next year.

The report was remarkably specific, stating that Samsung Galaxy Skin handset would offer specifications including a high-resolution 800×480 flexible AMOLED screen, eight megapixel camera and 1Gb of RAM as well as a 1.2GHz processor.

Those specifications sound suspiciously similar to the spec of Samsung’s current flagship, the Galaxy S II, however.

Will Findlater, editor of Stuff magazine said:

“AMOLED is already the mobile screen technology to beat, so if it’s as good as promised, flexible AMOLED could put an end to smashed smartphone displays – and tablets, which are even more fragile.”

“The potential for tablets that can fold to the size of a smartphone is especially exciting – you could have two gadgets for the price of one,” says Will Findlater.

The producer has made no official announcement regarding Samsung Galaxy Skin, and while they definitely can manufacture the technology – it was freely on show earlier this year – the gulf between that and a working phone ready to go into mass production is huge.

Samsung Galaxy Skin could be on sale as early as Spring 2012

Flexible screens have been demonstrated in various forms since as early as 2004 – with tech insiders suggesting that laptops or e-Book readers might one day take the form of a pen housing a processor with a sheet of paper-like screen wrapped around them.

Other ideas have included using tiny, flexible screens like electronic Post-it notes.