00:00I'm one of only five journalists in the entire world who has ever been allowed inside Samsung
00:04Display's top secret headquarters in South Korea, and what I saw inside those labs is
00:08about to completely change how we look at foldable phones forever.
00:13With the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series launching, Samsung has finally cracked the code on the
00:18one thing holding foldables back.
00:19It finally demoed a virtually crease-free screen that is thinner, stronger, and designed to
00:24make Apple very, very nervous.
00:26By the end of this video, you're going to see the exact torture tests this screen went
00:30through, the wild new science behind it, and why the foldable wars just changed forever.
00:37Allow me to set the stage.
00:39Samsung was the first mainstream phone brand to start showing off foldable displays all
00:43the way back in 2009, though we didn't get the original Galaxy Fold on shelves until 2019.
00:49For seven years, they've been iteratively grinding away at making these things mainstream.
00:53But ahead of the next generation of Samsung foldable phones, including the flagship Galaxy
00:57Z Fold 8, I was invited directly to their core R&D facilities in South Korea.
01:02While I was there, I sat down with two of the mastermind executives leading this revolution.
01:06They told me that while the first-gen foldables were massive innovations, consumers have consistently
01:11demanded improvements in thickness, weight, and of course, that perennial annoyance, the
01:15screen crease.
01:16Well, Samsung's response to those demands is a massive technical breakthrough coming
01:21to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series.
01:23Let me introduce you to Flex Titanium.
01:26We've seen Samsung use titanium in phone frames to support overall durability, but Flex Titanium
01:31is the first time the material is implemented inside the actual display structure itself.
01:36Flex Titanium is a dual defense system consisting of two key parts, a titanium alloy film and
01:42a titanium plate.
01:44First you have the titanium alloy film, which sits directly beneath the OLED panel to support
01:49it.
01:49It offers 20 times greater stiffness than traditional plastic films, yet it is somehow only 30% the
01:55thickness of a human hair.
01:57This gives you a display panel that is significantly slumber, but incredibly rigid when you're pressing
02:01on it.
02:02But titanium by its very nature isn't exactly known for being flexible.
02:06So, Samsung basically formulated an entirely new proprietary titanium alloy specifically
02:11to achieve the exact stretchability needed for a folding screen.
02:16Then there's the titanium plate, which is a flexible structure supporting the display
02:20module from underneath.
02:21In previous foldables, microscopic air gaps between the display module and the adhesive plate
02:26could cause the screen to sag or crease over time.
02:30But this new plate allows for an incredibly tight, seamless bond.
02:33It completely eliminates those air gaps.
02:36To make the actual folding area smooth, Samsung engineered a highly precise lattice structure
02:41right where the screen bends.
02:43An ultra-advanced laser-hole process fills the gaps in that lattice design, thus increasing
02:49the complete integrity of the material.
02:51With Flex Titanium, the visibility of the crease is dramatically reduced.
02:55When you look at it, the crease is, in fact, practically gone.
03:01But a smooth screen doesn't mean anything if it breaks after a few months of folding.
03:05And that's why Samsung let me walk into the testing labs to see how the new panels are
03:09torture tested.
03:10Get this.
03:11500,000 folding tests.
03:13That is how many times Samsung Display bends these panels to make sure they're ready to
03:17survive real-world daily wear and tear.
03:19Inside this chamber, they're controlling all sorts of elements, including not just like
03:24the folding and unfolding using robots, but also you're able to control the temperature
03:28and humidity.
03:29And we're talking about anywhere between negative 20 degrees Celsius all the way up to 60 degrees,
03:34which is about 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
03:37When the display is at normal room temperature, Samsung Display tests them to fold up to 500,000
03:41times.
03:41Under extreme desert heat, they test them up to 300,000 folds.
03:45And in the brutal sub-zero cold, these panels still successfully fold up to 60,000 times.
03:51And I can't show you, but there are cameras, eight live feeds that are going on inside.
03:57And it uses computer vision to tell the engineers when a display fails or doesn't.
04:03So overall, I think if you want something this durable, you need the testing to back it up.
04:07And now, we got our first look at how it works.
04:11Then there's the impact testing.
04:13Samsung positioned a foldable display under a vertical tube and dropped a solid 21.7-gram
04:18steel ball directly onto the screen.
04:20They did this at various heights, all the way up to nearly 20 inches without a scratch.
04:26Normally here at Tom's Guide, when we review a smartphone display, we use a specialized colorimeter
04:31and software to test the screen head-on.
04:33We measure things like peak brightness, color reproduction, and delta E accuracy.
04:37It's a thorough testing protocol, but what Samsung Display does inside their testing labs
04:41goes way beyond.
04:43They have this massive machine for advanced image quality and reflection testing.
04:47A spherical light source completely coated in a specialized barium sulfate material replicates
04:53the absolute highest light reflection rate possible.
04:56Then scanners measure the light bouncing back from the screen and calculate exactly how much
05:01light gets reflected.
05:03Samsung runs this test in eight different directions simultaneously, detecting more than 20 distinct
05:08data points for each direction.
05:10That means they are gathering 160 points of data across a rigorous three-minute test while
05:16the phone is continuously rotating the entire time.
05:19I have to respect the level of obsession here.
05:23All of this precision engineering and automated torture testing brings us to the elephant in
05:27the room.
05:27Apple.
05:28It is one of the worst-kept secrets in tech right now that Apple plans to finally enter
05:32the foldable phone market this coming September with a rumored iPhone Ultra or iPhone Fold.
05:37For years, Samsung has enjoyed a comfortable dominance in the foldable space.
05:41But a looming threat from Cupertino would make most companies sweat.
05:44When I brought this up to Samsung executives, they surprised me.
05:48They didn't seem worried at all.
05:49In fact, they told me they absolutely love, in quotes, the idea of Apple entering the arena.
05:55Samsung has been iteratively refining this technology in the public eye since 2019.
05:59They've already made the mistakes, took the hits, and figured out how to continuously optimize
06:04thickness, weight, and durability over several generations.
06:08By minimizing the crease, which has been one of the biggest mental roadblocks for everyday
06:12consumers, the execs over at Samsung believe the market is poised to explode.
06:17And ironically, Apple entering the space is the exact validation Samsung needs to prove
06:21that they were right all along.
06:25Look, Samsung started showing off flexible prototypes back in 2009.
06:29It's been a long-game approach for nearly two decades.
06:32But what does the smartphone of tomorrow look like, one of the first in the world to see
06:36a preview of different form factors and what might be coming to a phone near you?
06:40We're going to start with the Flex S, which is kind of like a triple foldable, and we've
06:45seen something like this before, but it gets more interesting as we go with each concept.
06:49Here is the outfoldable, so it's folding on the outside, but then it gets really interesting
06:53when you start looking at other technologies and how things can unfurl.
06:56In this case, we're talking about a rollable.
06:59So this is the Flex slidable, which goes from small all the way out to 7.2 inches.
07:04So imagine being able to press a button on your phone and getting a much larger canvas.
07:08But it gets even more interesting when you talk about the Flex Hybrid because it combines
07:12two technology into a single panel.
07:14In this case, you have a foldable and slidable in one.
07:18So it starts out very compact and then gets to 7.2 inches.
07:22So imagine this could be the smartphone of tomorrow in your pocket, but have a tablet size
07:27when you want it.
07:28And if the Flex Titanium display finally pushes the Galaxy Z Fold 8 comfortably and completely
07:32into the mainstream and takes adoption to the next level, I'm convinced it is 100% because
07:38of the incredible science happening inside those Samsung display labs.
07:42We are just getting started with our coverage leading up to Samsung Unpacked, and I'm going
07:46to have full hands-on impressions with the upcoming family of Z Fold devices.
07:50So now is a great time to make sure you're subscribed to Tom's Guide if you're not already.
07:54Let me know in the comments, does a completely crease-free, titanium reinforced screen make you
07:59want to finally buy a foldable?
08:01And do you think Apple is arriving too late to the party?
08:04For Tom's Guide, this is Mark Spoonhour.
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