Everyone dreads dropping their smartphone because of how easy it is to crack the cover glass, but Samsung could make such fears a thing of the past through a combination of a flexible OLED panel and fortified plastic.
Yesterday, Samsung Display announced that it had developed an unbreakable smartphone panel. To back up such a bold claim, the company had the new panel certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). UL is an official testing company for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the US Department of Labor (OSHA) and helps manufacturers ensure their products meet standards or achieve specific levels of quality and performance.
The testing carried out by UL on Samsung's display is to military standards set by the US Department of Defense. It involved dropping the display from a height of 1.2 meters (4 feet) a total of 26 times. The temperature was also varied between a high of 71 degrees and low of -32 degrees. After all 26 drops were performed, UL found no damage on the front, sides, or edges of the display. Increasing the height to 1.8 meters (6 feet) also resulted in no damage.
The reason Samsung's new display is so durable is down to the combination of a flexible OLED panel and fortified plastic cover. Typically, smartphones rely on glass covers which are very strong, but brittle, meaning a drop can result in a spider web of cracks across the cover.
Yesterday, Samsung Display announced that it had developed an unbreakable smartphone panel. To back up such a bold claim, the company had the new panel certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). UL is an official testing company for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the US Department of Labor (OSHA) and helps manufacturers ensure their products meet standards or achieve specific levels of quality and performance.
The testing carried out by UL on Samsung's display is to military standards set by the US Department of Defense. It involved dropping the display from a height of 1.2 meters (4 feet) a total of 26 times. The temperature was also varied between a high of 71 degrees and low of -32 degrees. After all 26 drops were performed, UL found no damage on the front, sides, or edges of the display. Increasing the height to 1.8 meters (6 feet) also resulted in no damage.
The reason Samsung's new display is so durable is down to the combination of a flexible OLED panel and fortified plastic cover. Typically, smartphones rely on glass covers which are very strong, but brittle, meaning a drop can result in a spider web of cracks across the cover.
