Samsung Display showcased a new foldable OLED panel at CES that doesn’t have a visible crease — something that currently blights every foldable phone on the market. This could be our first look at the panel used in the next generation of Samsung’s Galaxy foldables and even the folding iPhone, given that Samsung Display is a long-time provider for Apple.
The display unit was missing from Samsung Display’s CES showcase when The Verge team visited yesterday, but was initially set up beside a Galaxy Z Fold 7 foldable to provide a side-by-side comparison. SamMobile saw the demo before it was removed, and reports that the new panel “has no visible crease at all” compared to the crease on the Z Fold 7.
“The foldable panel showcased at the booth was an R&D concept, with no fixed timeline or plan for commercialization,” Rosie Kim, an Omnicom PR spokesperson for Samsung Display, told The Verge. Samsung Display did not explain why the concept panel had been removed from its exhibit.
Apple’s foldable iPhone will reportedly feature a crease-free display, so some future iteration of this concept panel may be used in the design. Samsung may also build versions of the panel into the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Wide Fold — the latter of which is rumored to be the same size as Apple’s foldable.