Here's why the Z Flip's folding glass display cover is still protected by a plastic film
Beware of manufactured controversies should be the lesson from yesterday’s brouhaha around the Galaxy Z Flip‘s ultrathin bendable display glass cover (UTG). It is apparently, gasp, covered by a plastic film of sorts, just like the original Galaxy Fold‘s colorless polyimide (CPI) display packaging was topped by such a material after Samsung pulled it in for a redesign.
Nowhere is that more clearly visible than in the video below where the PbK guy tries to get to the bottom of things by bending the display sheet corner onto itself, and noticing hairline cracks appear even with the extra film on. Imagine what would the situation be without it, especially above the hinge area. Spoiler alert, he actually separates Sekyung’s optical film from the UTG cover by simply peeling it off with a cutter knife.
Thus, Samsung had to put an extra thin layer protection on top of the Galaxy Z Flip, despite that the optical film would be softer and more prone to scratching than the actual glass cover that the flexible OLED display is packaged with.
Galaxy Z Flip features an Infinity Flex Display with Samsung’s Ultra Thin Glass (UTG) to deliver a sleek, premium look and offer an immersive viewing experience,” a spokesperson said by email. “Samsung’s first-of-its-kind UTG technology is different from other Galaxy flagship devices. While the display does bend, it should be handled with care. Also, Galaxy Z Flip has a protective layer on top of the UTG similar to Galaxy Fold.
The 8″ Galaxy Z Fold 2 will still use an ultrathin glass package… with a film cover
Samsung has been developing it for years, and it allows the whole package to bend at the middle by stretching a bit but not coming unglued. Called optical transparent adhesive film (OCA), this special type of elasticized glue can be bent thousands of times and retain its original size and form.
What Samsung did, however, is slap an extra anti-fingerprint and anti-scratch optic film on it and fuse it tight with the underlying package, and then upon the Fold’s re-release increased the corner overlap so that the whole plastic cover layer doesn’t look like a screen protector that invites you to peel it off.
Previously, industry insiders from Korea summed up the flexible display cover options conundrum as “glass has to overcome the challenges of mass production and size, while film material has to raise the yield rate and perfect hard-coating technology.” Not much has changed since then, but at least Sekyung Hi-Tech has perfected their cover film so that both the CPI and UTG cover versions can be protected at the very top.
The company has a lot of experience creating the films that seal those shimmering gradient colors and logos that companies like Samsung, Huawei or Oppo are now using on their phones, and it expects that Samsung may sell up to 5 million foldables this year, when we count the Z Flip and Fold 2, padding its bottom line further.
There you have it, glass or no glass, the top layer of foldable displays will need film protection for the foreseeable future, and with normal usage of bendy phones, that shouldn’t be a problem for the end user, or a reason for controversy if the bending function works as advertised. What do you think?