Samsung adopts the Apple playbook for foldable iPhone display crease
Samsung will be taking Apple's approach when it comes to foldable phone creases and wait to see if a technology that Apple is interested in will turn out viable for mass production of its first foldable phone about to be released next year.
According to The Elec's supply chain sources, Apple is still mulling which foldable display cover screen technologies or hinge suppliers to pick for its inaugural bendy device. Apparently, it would love to have an ultrathin glass (UTG) layer on top of the inner display that, however, will be thinner at the crease.
Why? So that it can make the rest of the all-important UTG cover layer thicker and increase the foldable iPhone's overall durability. In comparison, Samsung uses UTG cover glass for its Galaxy Z Fold and Flip lines of phones that is uniform in thickness across the board.
It, however, is reportedly watching Apple's efforts to secure the thin-crease foldable display cover technology and its eventual suppliers with vested interest. IF Apple manages to pull this off by the end of the year, Samsung is in its turn mulling to adopt the solution for its future foldables. This way, the Z Flip 8 or Z Fold 8 won't fall behind Apple's first foldable iPhone in terms of display technology.
Having an ultrathin cover glass which, as the name suggests, is already thin enough, be etched only in the middle where it must bend, and remain much thicker on the rest of the display comes with a big set of challenges. Apple is demanding that suppliers adopt a filler underneath the cover glass at the display crease so that it looks nearly flat when the phone is opened.
The additional material, however, has to have optical properties that will allow the thinner area to look uniform in terms of color representation and brightness to the rest of the screen. Not an easy feat to pull off, but Apple has its way to extract concessions from suppliers and push them to be their best self when it wants some unheard of feature or production quality that hasn't been attempted.
Samsung appropriates Apple's wait-and-see approach
It usually succeeds, as suppliers know that it will be one of their largest customers. Apple's typical way of doing things, however, is to take the wait and see approach with new technology or form factors.
It waits for the novel parts, be they OLED displays or periscope zoom lenses, to prove something that users want and drop in price accordingly, and only then ushers in the new tech, trying to preserve its profit margins.
With the non-uniform foldable iPhone cover glass thickness, Samsung is turning the wait-and-see approach tables on Apple in that respect. Apple waited so long to release a foldable phone that it now has to battle formidable opponents that churn out ultrathin handsets that are the thickness of a regular "rigid" iPhone when closed, but still come with giant batteries and periscope zoom cameras.
If Apple wants to impress anyone with its first foldable iPhone, it will have to do something no other maker is doing to impress customers, and the ultrathin cover glass with variable thickness that improves durability may be just what the doctor ordered.
Samsung tried to make a foldable phone that is as thin as those made by the Chinese juggernauts like Honor, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, Huawei, and others, but at the same time wanted it to be more durable to set it apart.
Well, it couldn't make it as thin as the 4.4mm Magic V3, for instance, so it focused on the durability part and the result was the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, a phone that is ostensibly tougher than the thinnest foldables, but thinner than, say, its Galaxy Z Fold 6 predecessor.
The competition will keep churning thinner foldables like the upcoming 4mm Oppo Find N5, though, so if Apple manages to secure a durable cover glass that is only thinner at the crease, Samsung will have little recourse but to follow suit.
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