Samsung Demonstrates New 'Unbreakable' OLED Display Panel

Samsung's display unit earlier this week announced a new "unbreakable" OLED panel designed for smartphones, and a new video Samsung Display shared on YouTube demonstrates the durability of the display.

In the video, the unbreakable OLED panel is subjected to a beating with what appears to be a plastic or rubber mallet, and it withstands several blows without damage.

Samsung's flexible all-plastic OLED panel is made from what it says is an unbreakable substrate adhered to an overlay window, a deviation from other, more breakable flexible OLED panels that use a glass-covered window.

The new OLED panel has been certified by Underwriters Laboratories, an official testing company for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor.

To earn the certification, the panel withstood 26 drops from 1.2 meters (4 feet) with no damage and held up to extreme temperature testing. Samsung says the display was also subjected to drops from six feet with no signs of damage.

According to Samsung, its unbreakable panels are being developed for use in smartphones, but can also be used in other products like display consoles for automobiles, mobile military devices, portable game consoles, and tablet PCs.

"The fortified plastic window is especially suitable for portable electronic devices not only because of its unbreakable characteristics, but also because of its lightweight, transmissivity and hardness, which are all very similar to glass," said Hojung Kim, general manager of the Communication Team, Samsung Display Company.

Samsung's first product to use the new unbreakable panel could be its upcoming Galaxy Note 9, which it is set to unveil on August 9.

While Apple uses OLED displays sourced from Samsung in its iPhone lineup, it is not clear if the Cupertino company plans to adopt this technology in the future.

Apple has thus far opted to use a Gorilla Glass cover for its displays and has not ventured into plastic, but it is not out of the realm of possibility should the display meet Apple's demands for quality.