Samsung Demonstrates New 'Unbreakable' OLED Display Panel

[Piggie]

It really irks me that they are using the word "unbreakable". Unless it is truly unbreakable, you shouldn't get to use that word!

I'm not really disagreeing with you, but from a Sales/Marketing, and general understanding of products viewpoint, this is not unusual.

The terms Unbreakable, Unstoppable, Waterproof, Everlasting, have and are used all over the place, and none of them actually mean that if you take it to the extreme.

A block of steel or a rock is not unbreakable or everlasting, but most people would generally regard it as so.

These terms are generally used with a product is a LOT more that what would be expected from what ever product it's up against.

You guy a sheet of glass for a window, and it will break
You may see an advert for unbreakable window replacement made from polycarbonate, are they technically unbreakable no, but in comparison to glass they are so much stronger, that for general thinking, when set against the normal product (a glass window) the polycarbonate one, is unbreakable, unless you set out to break it deliberately.

If a phone with a glass screen breaks when dropped on it's corner from 1 or 2 feet in the air, and you then make a phone with an, as advertised "unbreakable screen" that survives this, in fact survives, perhaps 4ft, 6ft, 10ft type drops and does not break.

Then, for most people, whilst not scientifically accurate a term, it is AS GOOD AS unbreakable.

The fact you CAN break it using tools or extreme measures is not really the point.

 

[GadgetBen]

"I will start pounding the panel with a hammer"

Very scientific approach.

 

[dilbert99]

That sounds like the worst of both worlds. What’s the point of the plastic of the assembly still includes a breakable glass overlay.

How so?

Glass gives scratch protection, plastic screen gives break protection.
The glass overlay if easily (as in user) replaceable gives the best of both worlds. Perhaps a glass screen protector. That would be user replaceable.

 

[Piggie]

Unbreakable, Unstoppable, Everlasting as just marketing terms.
I think most normal sensible people go kinda understand this.

Are they scientifically accurate? No.
Do advertising standards allow such claims? Well, they used to.

It's really just an easy way for a company to put across the idea that their product is a LOT different to the current product.

EG: Say everyone charges you 50 cents per minute to access the internet (kinda like how things used to be)
They some DISRUPTIVE company comes along and says $30 a month for Unlimited Internet.

As we know, that has in the past caused issues, and UNLIMITED may have been a little incorrect given actual bandwidth/capacity, but this DISRUPTIVE change/product is SO DIFFERENT to what's come before, it's used as a term to put over in a easy to understand manner to the public what this means in comparison.

It's generally people who abuse things that ruin it.
Like Microsoft saying Unlimited storage with Office Sub, and you get some idiots who think they are being clever and decide to upload a few 100 Terabytes, which then the company thinks, oh dear, we can't really carry on with unlimited so we are going to need to put a limit on for everyone.

So back to Screens, Unbreakable (in normal/typical use) would probably be the more accurate term.
You will always get someone who tried to throw it down a mountain, drive over it in a tank, crush it with a vice, hit it with a steel hammer, and say "there you see it''s not unbreakable" and think they look clever.
[doublepost=1532764349][/doublepost]

How so?

Glass gives scratch protection, plastic screen gives break protection.
The glass overlay if easily (as in user) replaceable gives the best of both worlds. Perhaps a glass screen protector. That would be user replaceable.

I like your thinking

Unbreakable (in normal use) screen and phone body, and user replaceable glass cover to offer better scratch resistance.
That would be a superb idea.

 

[mattoligy]

And will the plastic be from recycled sources I wonder

 

[jm001]

Inspiring music.

I know. It was inspiring me to go bang my head against a wall. Who produces these videos? That music was so annoyingly distracting.

 

[Elijen]

It's PLASTIC! They invented PLASTIC!!!

 

[FunnelDog]

Samsung's display unit earlier this week announced a new "unbreakable" OLED panel designed for smartphones, and a new video Samsung Display shared on YouTube demonstrates the durability of the display.

In the video, the unbreakable OLED panel is subjected to a beating with what appears to be a plastic or rubber mallet, and it withstands several blows without damage.

Samsung's flexible all-plastic OLED panel is made from what it says is an unbreakable substrate adhered to an overlay window, a deviation from other, more breakable flexible OLED panels that use a glass-covered window.

The new OLED panel has been certified by Underwriters Laboratories, an official testing company for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor.

To earn the certification, the panel withstood 26 drops from 1.2 meters (4 feet) with no damage and held up to extreme temperature testing. Samsung says the display was also subjected to drops from six feet with no signs of damage.

According to Samsung, its unbreakable panels are being developed for use in smartphones, but can also be used in other products like display consoles for automobiles, mobile military devices, portable game consoles, and tablet PCs.Samsung's first product to use the new unbreakable panel could be its upcoming Galaxy Note 9, which it is set to unveil on August 9.

While Apple uses OLED displays sourced from Samsung in its iPhone lineup, it is not clear if the Cupertino company plans to adopt this technology in the future.

Apple has thus far opted to use a Gorilla Glass cover for its displays and has not ventured into plastic, but it is not out of the realm of possibility should the display meet Apple's demands for quality.

Article Link: Samsung Demonstrates New 'Unbreakable' OLED Display Panel

... its 2018 - the least scientific way to test is by a random person using a hammer. If this fit in with a series of other videos that focused on "common user accidents" or something of that sort, this sort of demonstration would be neat. But to reference something as "shatter proof" and then share a video of someone (consistently? inconsistently? we don't know) hitting a screen is like watching a video of Prometheus and Bob from Kablaam or whatever.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Let’s give the thing a chance first before we start ridiculing it!

 

[RobertMartens]

but it is not out of the realm of possibility.

MacRumors certainly can wax poetically. I would have just said 'might' I know, how pedestrian of me.

 

[stopthenonsense]

Question: what happens if you would put this inside of a case with a gorilla glass front? Would the glass deal with much of the risk of scratches ("as is" in phones now)? And if you dropped it just right such that the glass did get shattered, would repair mostly amount to a new pane of gorilla glass and/or new case?

In short: if glass > plastic for scratch resistance, but plastic > glass for shatter resistance (ala "unbreakable") as it has been, manufacturers have gone with glass. Drop the device, shatter the glass: big, BIG bill to replace it. Could this work it the other way? Conceptually, a pane of glass NOT adhered to any electronics should be relatively cheap to replace- even gorilla glass XL super duper mach 4. So if the shattered glass doesn't scratch the plastic that IS a part of the underlying device, does this have potential to deliver best of both worlds AND (potentially) much cheaper repairs?

This question is not about love or hate for Samsung or Apple- just trying to think about this separate from biasing for or against any manufacturer. Conceptually, this has the potential to mostly solve 1 of 2 big (repair) problems with mobile devices. Manufacturer agnostically, I'm thinking about the other issue here... and wondering if the above might work (better than "as is")? If not, why not?

Can just put a glass screen protector on it. $9 for a three pack on amazon. Available 2 months before the first device is sold.

 

[tmarks11]

My iPhone X is *covered* in scratches.

Recommend on your next phone you get a tempered glass screen protector. Doesn't change the feel or look of the phone, and if you do get scratches, $12 for a new screen protector makes it brand new.

 

[charlituna]

Impress me by using an actual hammer.

i wanna see it run over by a city bus

 

[lostngone]

They didn’t not show the panel working after beating it with the hammer!
The OLED display might be flexible but so is the plastic panel, some of that energy has to have been transferred to the OLED.

 

[Whathappened]

"Unbreakable," huh..? Somebody get my sledge hammer.

They might be aiming at people’s common sense (like understanding what kind of threats a display could be exposed to and to which not) when they call it “unbreakable”, which is why they obviously sometimes miss.

 

[aleni]

If it makes the iphone x 30% lighter, i’m all for it.

 

[limo79]

Without Samsung there will be no iPhone X and iPhone 2018 models. When Apple worked on Animoji company called Samsung worked on flexible OLED screen. Ok Apple designed a custom T2 chip and has great SSD controller but in few last years they showed nothing impressive (last thing was unibody design in my opinion). From leaders to technology loosers. With such tendency Xiaomi and Huawei will dominate Apple within several years. They will end up like Nokia.

 

[Gen0]

Actually watched it now that's horrid. It won't break, it will just cave in and everything around it (digitizer, glass/plastic housing (they aren't going to sell you a flexible phone yet), battery, connector patches to screen) will take the force instead. This is so that you can watch your phone after it's dead really.
And I'm 100% nobody will make a metal phone with this in it, they will all be glass.

 

[FFR]

From leaders to technology loosers. With such tendency Xiaomi and Huawei will dominate Apple within several years. They will end up like Nokia.

Sure they will .

 

[JohnnyW2K1]

View attachment 773133

Yeahthanksforthat.

I think this is why they can use plastic and not glass. The OLED can handle some flexibility without any problems.

 

[sequential]

My iPhone X is *covered* in scratches. Horrible! Waaaay worse than my 6 Plus ever was. I can't imagine this Samsung OLED being any worse. And fyi I've treated my X with kid gloves since purchase. Never goes in a pocket, etc. It must be defective.. I don't know. Hopefully the 2018 models will be better because this one is getting traded in!!

What the h*** are you doing with your phone? I’ve had one since release and use it daily and it haven’t got a single scratch on it. Not even one.

 

[tennisproha]

No **** Samsung. They must really take their users for dumbasses. Of course plastic won't break as easily as glass. It'll scratch in an instant though. And has a terrible feel. I'm fine with glass. Thanks but no thanks. And nice try.

 

[TimmeyCook]

Inspiring music.

Quality presentation from a multi-billion dollar company.

They must had spent all the money on their ads.

 

[sulpfiction]

A rubber mallet and a panel that’s laying directly on a flat surface isn’t the best “real world” testing,..but she was hitting it pretty hard.

 

[FFR]

No **** Samsung. They must really take their users for dumbasses. Of course plastic won't break as easily as glass. It'll scratch in an instant though. And has a terrible feel. I'm fine with glass. Thanks but no thanks. And nice try.

They don’t even know what to do with it.