Samsung’s Foldable Display Tech Fixes the Crease (Mostly) - DTNS 5310

**Jason Howell** (0:05)
This is the Daily Tech News for Wednesday, July 15th, 2026 We tell you what you need to know, give you the context on all of it, and help each other understand.

**Sarah Lane** (0:13)
Today, Samsung says it has mostly fixed the crease problem on foldable smartphone displays.

**Jason Howell** (0:20)
Oh, we're almost there, but yeah, anyways, we'll talk about it. I'm Jason Howell.

**Sarah Lane** (0:24)
And I'm Sarah Lane.

**Jason Howell** (0:25)
Let's start with what you need to know with the big story.
All right, so Samsung has tackled and is apparently winning its long years long anyways, at this point, battle about and surrounding display creases in its foldable smartphone lineup. Only took seven years to get there. And it, you know, so I'm very curious to see the fruits of its labor. The company announced Flex Titanium, its display technology one week ahead of the next big hardware event coming from Samsung. That's Samsung Galaxy Unpacked happening in London next week. So certainly we're going to talk all about what is actually announced at the event. Although we have a pretty good indication of what that's going to be. The company is going to be showcasing the upcoming next generation of its foldable lineup, primarily that includes Galaxy Z Flip 8, Z Fold 8, Z Fold Ultra.
And as far as the display itself, so Samsung basically a week ahead of the event, kind of setting the stage to say, hey, there's something to get really excited about here. It has a structure that uses a titanium alloy film, multi-layered, that Samsung says has 20 times the mechanical stiffness of a polymer film. So it has a titanium plate in there as well, that improves how the display actually bonds and stays stable when it's folded and unfolded. The film is about one-third of the thickness of a human hair.

**Sarah Lane** (1:55)
That is very thin, by the way.

**Jason Howell** (1:58)
Very thin, like a mini-skew.

**Sarah Lane** (2:00)
One-third the thickness of a human hair? Come on.

**Jason Howell** (2:02)
Yeah.

**Sarah Lane** (2:03)
That's insane.

**Jason Howell** (2:04)
Yeah, and when you're talking about these multiple layers, I guess that stuff kind of adds up, right? But yeah, that's tiny, that feels very small.
That essentially means clearly that it keeps the panel slim, but also helps in its resiliency to repeated folding. The system also improves shock resistance, supports ultra-vivid visuals, according to Samsung, at lower power levels. So I'm curious to know how that kind of ties into that. But the key problem or promise here, rather, is addressing the problem of these panels and the crease that often appears down the center. And these stronger panels are essentially aimed at and potentially going to mostly solve and reduce the visibility of that crease down the center of the smartphone display. So Samsung is stopping short of saying, hey, we fixed it, the crease is entirely gone.

**Sarah Lane** (2:56)
Because as soon as they say that and you see a crease, people are like, oh, well, now you act up.

**Jason Howell** (3:02)
Yeah, I see it. I don't know why you say you don't see it. I see it. I'm looking through a magnifying glass and whatever, but I've stared at it for 20 hours. Yes, I see it.
Samsung also reportedly the display provider for Apple's first foldable iPhone that's been reported in recent months, which we've talked about. So with this announcement, Samsung is basically saying, it also really welcomes their words, really welcomes Apple entering the foldable market because that helps, I guess, legitimize the form factor even further.

**Sarah Lane** (3:34)
And it also puts money in Samsung's pocket because they're providing. Yeah.
I had a little chuckle at that part of it.

**Jason Howell** (3:43)
Yeah.

**Sarah Lane** (3:44)
The foldable iPhone, which is reported to be upwards of $2,000 out of the gates, which is insane.
And we've got all sorts of memory issues where prices are being hiked up. Apple is not the only company, but obviously has been in the news for that specifically.
I am really looking forward to what Apple announces, let's call it September, if memory serves, if they don't do anything super crazy this year. But Samsung supplying the needed hardware for a company like Apple to be successful at this means that Samsung wins. Samsung and Apple are competitors, but they're also, they have a handshake agreement in a lot of ways. So it's kind of a funny situation of like, who's going to win? I don't know that they're really competing with each other.

**Jason Howell** (4:44)
Well, yeah, and like you said, Samsung's technology critical to what Apple is doing in foldables. I think what I find really interesting about this is the legitimacy aspect of this. Samsung's been working on its foldables now for seven-ish years. I think this is the eighth, so it's going to be their eighth generation of foldables. Samsung, one of the major players in the industry when it comes to smartphones next to Apple.