Samsung confirms it is making bezel-less all-screen design, likely for iPhone

The managing director of Samsung Display Jung Yong-wook held a keynote presentation during the K-Display Business Forum at COEX in Gangnam, Seoul, the place Samsung invited us to for the announcement of the new 2023 Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 foldable phones.

In order to achieve this, Samsung said it needs to work on the lamination and edge brightness aspects, as well as on greatly improving the under-display cameras it currently ships on some of its foldable phones in order to increase the usable display area.

At the event, Samsung presented the all-screen phone as the logical next evolution step in phone design, showcasing a timeline of the history of the disappearing display bezel of iPhones and Android handsets, from bar type feature phones, through Apple's notch, to its under-display front camera.

Samsung is also working on phones with a slidable form factor where the display rolls into the phone itself to make it thinner and more compact to carry than current foldables, and can be pulled out if bigger area is needed for reading or watching videos. 

"Slidable needs to be discussed with the set company, but I think it will be released as a product in 2-3 years," said another Samsung Display executive at the expo, likely referring to Samsung's MX (Mobile eXperience) phone division.

In essence, Samsung seems to be working both on an all-screen phone concept and on increasing the number of form factors on the market with a slidable phone display design. Apple has reportedly also tasked LG with finding a way to make the OLED panels it supplies for its iPhones truly bezel-less.

Previously, the Elec's sources informed that this will be a tall order, as Apple doesn't want a curved display like on, say, the Galaxy S23 Ultra, but rather a truly bezel-less panel that would seamlessly blend with the phone's sides.

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The reason Apple is against curved screens is that it thinks the light refraction at the edges where the screen bends detracts from the experience. Thus, it wants Samsung and LG to completely tuck all the display cables and circuitry below the screen and introduce thinner organic and non-organic layers to boot.

This will be no easy task for either Samsung or LG, and may take a couple of years to accomplish. Still, Apple seems bent on achieving this for reasons yet unknown. Previous rumors pegged it as determined to release an iPhone with no ports, buttons, or openings of any kind.

The unibody iPhone was rumored to come as a solid piece of unibody glass art and have capacitive touch buttons as well as wireless-only charging. Those capacitive buttons were reportedly going to be introduced as soon as the iPhone 15 Pro line, but Apple reportedly ran into trouble with developing those with the action it intended and postponed them for a later edition.

The challenge in creating a truly bezel-less iPhone with end-to-end OLED screen panel that transitions seamlessly into the frame also stems from the fact that phones need a bit of extra space on the side to house the various antennas along the sides.

This way the design ensures better reception than if they are tucked further inside and the signal needs to penetrate palms and cases at the same time. It remains to be heard what Apple is up to with this bezel-less OLED screen order to Samsung and LG, or whether they will be able to pull the feat off at all. LG is said to be researching ways to overcome the same complexities of the task that Samsung talks about at the expo, so we wouldn't hold our breath for an all-screen iPhone 16 just yet.