Samsung Galaxy S10 could have ‘self-healing’ screen that fixes scratches by itself – and NEVER smudges with fingerprints
ALWAYS scratching your smartphone? Samsung has designed a revolutionary display that fixes itself.
The so-called "self-healing" screen will repair scratches all by itself, keeping your device looking as good as new.
The tech is revealed in a Samsung granted by the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
In the patent Samsung describes how customers regularly suffer from tiny screen scratches – and fingerprint smudges, too.
The solution is to create a protective layer on top of a smartphone screen that can fix itself, and repel those nasty finger oils as well.
Typically, smartphone screens are covered with tempered glass.
Samsung's own phones come kitted out with hardy Gorilla Glass, built by a company called Corning.
It's designed to be seriously tough, but it's not a catch-all solution.
Even Samsung admits that this type of glass is "easily broken or scratched".
"There is a need for a protective material having improved properties, and which can be applied to an electronic device," Samsung explains in its patent filing.
Samsung describes how its concept solution – a thin film that lives on top of your smartphone screen, that could even be applied to foldable phones.
"The film may be self-healed after being scratched and has excellent flexibility, and thus may be applied to a flexible device and the like," Samsung writes.
The "flexible device" bit is important, because Samsung is planning to release its own foldable smartphone in early 2019.
The patent explains that the film would be made from "polyrotaxane, polyhedral silsesquioxane, and fluorinated (meth) acryl".
But sadly, it doesn't detail exactly how these compounds would heal the screen.
That said, self-healing surfaces aren't exactly new – and we've even seen them on smartphones.
The LG G Flex and G Flex 2 smartphones, which launched in 2013 and 2015, both shipped with self-healing rears.
LG kept quiet about the exact specifics behind the technology, but suggested it was due to the hydrogen atoms built into the phone's back.
Speaking to TechnoBuffalo back in 2015, it said that hydrogen atoms tend to arrange themselves equally.
So when scratches are made, these atoms push each other back to their original spot, effectively healing minor scratches.
Sadly, the tech didn't work for major cuts. And it's very likely Samsung's self-healing screen wouldn't be able to repair major scratches.
And as for rejecting fingerprint smudges, Samsung wants to fit its protective film with an oleophobic layer.
This is a special type of material that rejects oil – in the same way that hydrophobic materials repel water.
It means that finger oils would be unable to stick onto the smartphone glasses, making the screen appear much cleaner.
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So when will we see this tech on a phone?
For now, it's just a patent, which means there's no guarantee it will ever make it onto an available Samsung handset.
But the fact that Samsung mentioned foldable phones in its patent could mean we'll see it land on next year's folding Galaxy X smartphone.
Alternatively, we could see the tech on next year's Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone, also expected in the early part of 2019.
We've asked Samsung for comment and will update this article with any response.
Have you ever cracked a phone screen? Did you get it repaired, or was the cost just too high? Let us know in the comments!
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