Samsung has an unbreakable smartphone screen, and we can't wait to test it
You know how they called the Titanic unsinkable? It didn't turn out to be a very smart way of describing that particular ship.
In completely unrelated news, Samsung has announced a smartphone screen that it calls "unbreakable," which by definition means it can never, ever be broken under any circumstances.
The panel, Samsung claims, is a flexible OLED one with an "unbreakable substrate and an overlay window securely adhered to it."
“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, general manager of the Communication Team, Samsung Display Company.
The panel has been certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL), which is an official testing company for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the U.S. Department of Labor. Under UL's testing, it has been dropped at 1.2 meters 26 times in succession, as well as subjected to high and low temperatures (71 an -32 degrees celsius, respectively), with zero damage whatsoever. The panel has also been dropped from an ever higher height of 1.8 meters, with no sign of damage.
While we applaud Samsung's efforts here, especially as this type of panel might finally result in the oft-announced flexible Samsung phone, we're quite sure that someone out there will keep increasing that drop height to test Samsung's unbreakability claims. And, honestly, we can think of places a lot higher than 1.8 meters.
The news is all the more interesting as Samsung is scheduled to hold a big event on August 9 in New York City. Could the flexible phone finally become a reality? Or will the Galaxy Note 9, which is likely to be announced at the event, have this unbreakable screen? The phone is rumored to be an evolutionary upgrade to its predecessor, but a screen that's very hard to break could make it a bit more interesting.
Topics Samsung
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
