Indestructible Galaxy: Samsung Phablet with Unbreakable Display in the Works

Tech giant Samsung is rumored to usher in a new era for smartphones and tablets alike—the era of unbreakable displays. Come fourth quarter of this year, broken screens and shattered displays will be a thing of the past with the introduction of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

The third-generation phablet will feature the long-rumored unbreakable display, a first in the history of mobile devices. OLED Association confirmed this in a report earlier in April, stating that Samsung will use a flexible and unbreakable AMOLED display for its Note 3.

Goodbye glass, hello plastic

Instead of using traditional glass, Samsung will equip the Note 3 with a screen made of plastic substrate. The material will make the screen virtually immune to breakage and destruction. This is definitely big news for those who are constantly complaining about broken screens and fragile displays. The Note 3’s OLED display is also rumored to be far stronger than the widely used alkali-aluminosilicate, damage-resistant Gorilla Glass. If the Note 3’s plastic display is indeed tougher than the more popular Gorilla Glass, then it’s certainly saying a lot about the screen’s strength.

OLED Association also revealed that the plastic screen will be a lot thinner and more lightweight compared to its glass counterparts. This results in smaller size and greater flexibility. The thin screen also provides more space for a bigger battery, so the Note 3 will probably come with better battery life and performance. While the third-gen Galaxy phablet is expected to be lighter and thinner than the Note 2, its screen size is rumored to be somewhere between 5.9 to a little over six inches. It’s a notch bigger than the 5.5-inch display of its predecessor. The wider and thinner screen and the possibility of a bigger battery capacity will certainly draw users who want to watch movies and stream videos on their phablets while enjoying longer battery life.

Gigantic leap forward, titanic risk

The use of unbreakable, plastic OLED screens is a gigantic leap forward and a titanic risk at the same time for the Korean tech giant. Glass is the standard when it comes to screens, so it’s still a huge question whether or not plastic display will gain favorable response from the public. The unbreakable quality of the Note 3’s OLED screen, though, is what sets it apart from other fragile glass-toting devices. It basically rivals Apple’s recently released design of a futuristic iPhone with a flexible, wraparound screen. While the Note 3’s display won’t fully cover the entire device the way the future iPhone’s screen would, its unbreakable quality is a good enough tradeoff.

Retina vs. AMOLED

The introduction of unbreakable OLED screens will also add more fuel to the longstanding subject of heated debate over which display offers better quality—Samsung’s AMOLED screens or Apple’s retina displays. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., previously criticized OLED screens, writing them off as lower-quality displays with “awful” color saturation. Cook’s statement greatly contradicts the recent patent filings of Apple on OLED and other similar technologies. This shows that Apple is also tapping into the same technology used by its biggest competitor.

While the incorporation of plastic screens on its flagship Galaxy line is a great risk for Samsung, it also has the potential to catapult the Korean tech giant miles ahead of the competition. Being the first to introduce this kind of screen is also a big plus point for the company. In a market dominated by business phones and phablets toting glass screens, Samsung’s Note 3 can indeed be considered a breakthrough innovation.