Cracking a phone screen has been a right of passage for a lot of users, but Samsung’s latest development could put an end to that with the announcement today that they’ve created an uncrackable OLED display.
The design of these new screens are a departure from the usual way of creating unbreakable screens, which have until now been simply covered with harder and harder glass such as ‘Gorilla Glass’ or synthetic substances such as sapphire glass. The new screens are comprised of a flexible OLED panel which have ‘an unbreakable substrate and an overlay window securely adhered to it’.
Hojung Kim, general manager of the Communication Team, Samsung Display Company said of the screens
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.
The screens have been certified as unbreakable by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) who according to their website are ‘a global independent safety science company with more than a century of expertise innovating safety solutions’.
UL subjected the screens to rigorous testing which included ‘a drop test administered at 1.2 meters (nearly 4 feet) above the ground 26 times in succession, and accompanying high (71 degrees) and low (-32 degrees) temperature tests’. UL then subjected the display to a 1.8m drop, after which the ‘unbreakable panel operated normally with no sign of damage’.
Samsung has said that they will be using the new screens in ‘electronic products such as display consoles for automobiles, mobile military devices, portable game consoles and tablet PCs for e-learning’, and you’d also imagine they’d likely be coming to phones as well – possibly even the Galaxy S10 next year.
Update: The announcement yesterday of an unbreakable display was interesting, but bland with no images or video. Now Samsung Display has resolved that by adding both a picture of the display, and a video of the display showing comparisons with a glass covered display and their new unbreakable one. The video (with its terrible soundtrack) shows the panel bending and flexing, as well as what happens when you belt it with a rubber mallet (they call it a hammer).
Is it really news??? Motorola has had this for a while (I can attest to indestructibility of Moto X Force from experience, not just the screen the phone it self is very well made as well)
https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_x_force-7555.php
https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_z_force-8093.php
https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_z2_force-8693.php
Definitely because there’s multiple pictures of Moto X/Z Force phones with popped LCDs but uncracked plastic displays.
Would work well, just put a glass screen protector on, they’re cheaper and easier to replace when damaged and will give that glass feel everyone loves.
Well, ok, but how scratchable are they?
That list of uses (military etc.) makes it sound like it won’t be a high enough quality ‘feel’ to use on phones
More than a century of innovation experience? Translation four 20 something’s run the company. Dropped 26 times? Translation one phone took 27 goes before it broke. Pretty sure if I dropped my phone from waist height out would likely suffer little to no screen damage.
Peter
I’m wondering about the UL testing. Did they drop the test device flat onto the drop test surface, or drop it edge on?