Samsung proudly announced today that its “unbreakable smartphone panel” has been certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). This means this ultra durable display is much closer to very profitable things like military and automotive contracts. But let’s be serious. Somebody’s gonna find a way to break this thing and I hope it’s me.
The new display owes its anti-destructive tendencies to a couple of innovations. Samsung says that the OLED panel has “an unbreakable substrate”. (A substrate is basically the coating that holds the display’s organic material, cathodes and diodes together.)
Additionally, the Samsung display uses a flexible new type of plastic that won’t crack like glass. So you can supposedly drop it, smash it and bend it without breaking the display.
Samsung, of course, had to conduct some tests in order to win the new UL certification. The press release reads:
After a drop test administered at 1.2 metres above the ground 26 times in succession and accompanying high (71 degrees) and low (-32 degrees) temperature tests, the Samsung unbreakable panel continued to function normally with no damage to its front, sides or edges.
Even in a subsequent 1.8m drop test — significantly higher than the US military standard — Samsung Display’s unbreakable panel operated normally with no sign of damage.
Samsung also released a very dull video to show off the unbreakableness of the new display. In the video, a person hits the display with a rubber mallet, which is honestly a lame way to show off how durable something is:
It’s worth pointing out that Samsung mentions the military quite a few times in its press release. Is this a sign that the South Korean company is finally setting itself up to supply US troops with smartphones or other devices? It’s unclear.
It’s also worth pointing out that Samsung is not the first company to brag about building an unbreakable display. Back in 2015, Motorola made a similar claim about the Droid Turbo 2. The company said its phone was drop-proof, so naturally, Gizmodo dropped it 70 times in a row.
The Droid Turbo 2 actually survived.
So we can’t wait to try the same thing with the new Samsung display! And since “unbreakable” is such a salacious claim, maybe we’ll bust out a metal hammer or even a machete. This is gonna be fun.