Samsung Built A ‘Unbreakable’ Flexible Display

Samsung is building a new, unbreakable smartphone display. Samsung Display today unveiled the new flexible OLED display panel, which is capable of surviving rigorous drop tests.

The unbreakable display, certified by UL (Underwriters Laboratories), an official testing company for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor, has gone through multiple rigorous tests before obtaining the certification. The display features an unbreakable substrate that makes the display so tough, in case you were wondering.

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“The fortified plastic window is especially suitable for portable electronic devices not only because of its unbreakable characteristics, but also because of its lightweight, transmissivity and hardness, which are all very similar to glass,” said Hojung Kim, the GM of Samsung Display’s communication team.

The tests done by the UL showed the new Samsung display panel is incredibly strong. In fact, it apparently survived 1.2 meter drops 26 times in a row. Yes — the display was dropped 26 times in a row, 1.2 meters above the ground, and it continued to function properly without any damage. To further test the display’s durability, the panel was tested under different temperatures and passed the tests without any damage. In fact, Samsung says the display even survived 1.8-meter drops without any damage done to the panel which is really incredible.

Of course, we probably won’t get to use Samsung’s new display panel with our next smartphones, but they shouldn’t be too far away. Samsung even says the company envisions the display to be used in other products like the display in your car’s infotainment system, mobile military devices, educational tablets, etc.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 5 comments

  • MikeCerm

    26 July, 2018 - 10:11 am

    <p>This is fine, I guess, but plastic pretty easily scratched, which is why smartphones are all covered in scratch-resistant glass… which is easy to crack. Because glass is glued to the screen (fully laminated), it's impossible to replace one without the other), I wonder if this really moves the ball at all. Perhaps this is just for all-plastic indestructible phones that get marketed to industries where that's important.</p>

    • FalseAgent

      26 July, 2018 - 10:24 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#295810">In reply to MikeCerm:</a></em></blockquote><p>Exactly. The Samsung Active 'tough phones' all use plastic screens for this reason.</p>

  • FalseAgent

    26 July, 2018 - 10:27 am

    <p>flexible screens have been around for a while, I guess the innovation here is that they have put the flexible plastic on it? But that's still not good enough for smartphone application, not unless they're able to make the capacitive touch digitizer work on the surface. Unfortunately, we get no touch demo in the video. </p>

  • Jason Peter

    26 July, 2018 - 11:21 am

    <p>It is one thing to hit the plastic screen with a rubber mallet when its sitting flat on an even surface. But how would it fare if it was positioned with an air gap and electronic parts behind it, as it would be if encased in a smartphone enclosure? And even if it would survive breakage due to flexibility, would it also protect the mainboard, battery, and other components underneath? If not, then its a moot point.</p><p><br></p><p>It would have been interesting to see how the regular gorilla glass panel would have fared in the same test environment (flat on an even surface)?</p><p><br></p><p>Also, how scratch resistant is it? Plastic is normally more prone to abrasive scratching than glass in general. Think of the older iPods and their scratched outer acrylic casing.</p>

  • plettza

    26 July, 2018 - 10:41 pm

    <p>Yeah, but will it blend?</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC