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Samsung has 'unbreakable' OLED phone screen in the works

First truly foldable phone could be around the corner.

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Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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samsung-unbreakable-oled-screen

Samsung's new unbreakable flexible OLED screen.

 Samsung
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A future Samsung Galaxy phone (although likely not this Galaxy phone) could have a flexible screen that's unbreakable, delivering the first truly foldable handset. The Korean electronics giant said Wednesday that its recently developed phone panel has been certified by Underwriters Laboratories, meaning it's ready to start shipping to consumers in actual devices. Samsung said it expects the new panel to have applications in non-phone markets as well, such as automobiles, mobile military devices and portable game consoles, among others.

Samsung's efforts to make a foldable phone come as demand for phones slows down. It's getting harder for handset makers to differentiate their devices, and consumers don't feel the need to upgrade as often. In the fourth quarter, overall phone unit sales fell for the first time ever, according to Gartner.

The flexible OLED panel is constructed of an unbreakable substrate with an overlay window adhered to it, Samsung said. Flexible displays currently commercially available tend to shatter when subjected to severe impact.

That apparently won't occur with Samsung's new screen.

"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," Hojung Kim, a spokesperson for Samsung Display Company, said in a statement.

The display passed rigorous durability tests, Samsung said, including being dropped 26 times in a row from a height of nearly 4 feet and continued to function normally, suffering no damage to its front, sides or edges.

news-061318-foldphone
Watch this: Samsung's folding phone may be pricey

All of Samsung's flagship phones now have flexible, curved displays, but the screen could lay the groundwork for foldable phones. ZTE's 2017 Axon M has two screens that fold out into a tablet and are connected by a hinge, but Samsung is widely expected to release a device that will be a truly foldable phone with one flexible OLED display and no hinge.

Samsung is in competition with Huawei to claim first in the race to release such a foldable phone. Samsung Mobile President DJ Koh has gone on the record to talk about the company's plans for a foldable Galaxy phone and has previously told reporters to expect a folding phone as early as this year.

This story was originally published July 25 at 4:54 p.m. PT.

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