Foldable iPhone will have an invisible display crease thanks to Samsung
Samsung Display has an exclusive contract with Apple to supply OLED panels with a virtually invisible screen crease for a foldable iPhone.
BusinessKorea reports that Samsung Display has won an exclusive contract to supply flexible OLED display panels for a foldable iPhone. South Korea’s LG Display and China’s BOE reportedly didn’t meet Apple’s strict specifications, but may join the supply chain for a foldable iPhone when they meet Apple’s quality requirements.
“Apple has decided to equip its first foldable iPhone, set for release in the latter half of next year, exclusively with OLED panels from Samsung Display,” reads the report. “This decision marks a pivotal moment in the industry as Samsung Display will be the sole supplier, excluding LG Display and Chinese BOE panels,” it continues.
Samsung Display will help Apple minimize the screen crease in a foldable iPhone
According to an unnamed industry insider cited in the report, “For Apple, which prioritizes quality over price when selecting component suppliers, Samsung was the only viable choice.”
I find it interesting that Samsung hasn’t yet minimized the crease on its own foldable smartphones, yet its display-making arm has managed to produce samples of foldable screens with a minimal crease that Apple has now approved.
That’s not surprising; Samsung Display has been the only company that’s been capable of both continually investing in technologies like flexible OLED panels and churning out these things in volume.
The first foldable iPhone could be priced between $2100 and $2300. If true, the foldable iPhone price could be about ten precent higher than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6, which starts at $1900 for the 256-gigabyte version, or $1000 more than the flagship $1600 1TB iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Samsung Display has a technological edge
Back in 2017 when the iPhone X finally brought OLED technology to the Apple smartphone, Samsung Display was initially an exclusive OLED supplier for the iPhone X for pretty much the same reasons: Only it could meet Apple’s strict quality requirements and guarantee steady output to produce enough OLED panels to fulfill orders from Apple.
Manufacturers of foldable smartphones like Samsung, Google and Oppo have been trying to minimize the screen crease with more or less success. The screen crease and the reliability of the hinges remain among the biggest complaints about foldable smartphones. The screen crease is still visible on the latest generations of foldable devices, like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
But thanks to continuing investment and innovation from suppliers like Samsung Display, LG Display and BOE, the crease is now harder to see than it ever was and isn’t nearly as deep as before. On Oppo’s Find N5, for example, the screen is almost invisible thanks to a custom hinge design.
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