Samsung showcases its foldable phone display durability

Apple might have been skeptical about the durability of the foldable displays that Samsung provided for testing. Before launching its first device with a foldable screen, which is rumored to replace the iPad mini, Apple reportedly tested several flexible panels. They were unimpressed with Samsung’s display, which broke after just a few days of testing.

If this is true, it could delay the launch of the foldable iPad mini-sized device until Apple waits for the next generation of such panels. But now Samsung is determined to show how tough the current crop of panels actually is.

Samsung Display just announced that its 7-inch foldable screen, used in phones like the Galaxy Z Fold 5, has become the first of its kind to pass the U.S. Department of Defense-recognized military standard MIL-STD 810G tests.

The American Military Specification (MilSpec) testing puts the devices it evaluates through extreme temperature conditions or rough usage to simulate the daily wear and tear they’d face if used in military service.

“In the test, the foldable panel operated normally even after the exterior of the panel was frozen into 6mm-thick ice by spraying water in an environment of minus 10 degrees, and that state was maintained for 4 hours. There were no performance problems in a test in which the device endured an environment of -32 degrees Celsius and +63 degrees Celsius for two hours in a row, and repeated such sudden temperature changes three times over 12 hours.”

After dropping devices equipped with Samsung’s foldable panel 26 times from waist height at various angles, the organization that Samsung Display engaged for the testing found “no problems with the product during external activities by rotating the product at a speed that would apply up to 10.5 times the force of gravity,” or the acceleration tests that the military does on components for planes and choppers.

In addition to the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Samsung also used the first MIL-STD 810G-certified foldable display with a plastic substrate in its recently demonstrated Flex In-N-Out prototype device, which made an appearance during the CES expo last month. In any case, the point is that its flexible phone displays have come a long way since the first Fold screen issue that allowed debris to get into the hinge and under the panel.