Are you attracted to the near bezel-less display on the LG G6 and the Samsung Galaxy S8? Do you want to part with your kidney for owning one of those palm-sized style statements? Then wait, you could be losing it too early as next year’s flagships from Samsung and LG could have a true bezel-less display.
Samsung Display and LG Display are working on a screen where the curved edge can be applied to the top and bottom as well. With the existing dual curved side edge technology, the new research from Samsung and LG could give the world a four-sided curved edge display. In short, that would be a true bezel-less screen where all sides of the phone can be used by the software to display useful information.
The real hurdle, however, is the current lamination technology that is used to keep the screen, glass and protective film held together. The current stick-type lamination that is used in existing smartphones isn’t capable of laminating a four-sided curved screen. It will induce a blind spot at the four corners, which is an issue that no manufacturer would like to have in their flagship phone.
Samsung display had originally planned to develop the new lamination process with Apple for the OLED iPhone due later in 2017. But Apple has chosen to stay away from the curved display and prefer a flat OLED display that could be bezel-less. This means that Samsung has a year’s time to solve the problem and deliver a quad-curved Infinity Display on the Galaxy S9. Even LG Display is hard on its heels to get the next generation lamination technology ready for implementing a real bezel-less screen for next year’s flagship.
The current Galaxy S8 series has a screen-to-body ratio of about 83 percent. If that figure has to be raised to 98 percent, then Samsung would have to either follow the Xiaomi Mi Mix for an embedded earpiece or push the physical earpiece and sensors on the thin frame between the top edge and the rear panel. No wonder making a beautiful looking phone is extremely complicated.
