Plastic Or Glass: Which makes a better foldable screen?
If you’ve seen any of the marketing for Samsung’s more recent foldable devices like the Galaxy Z Fold2 or Galaxy Z Flip, you might have spotted the phrase Ultra Thin Glass — but does glass really make for a better foldable display than plastic?
Does glass provide more protection than plastic?
When it comes to smartphones, the answer to the above question is usually yes. Mainstream flagship smartphones like the iPhone shifted away from plastic screens and towards glass ones because they lasted longer and didn’t scratch as easily.
When it comes to foldables like the Galaxy Z Flip, things are a little more complicated.
As put by Sean Hollister in this exceptional piece for The Verge:
Practically anything can be bent if you make it thin enough.
Unsurprisingly, early stress testers for both the Galaxy Z Flip found that UTG didn’t offer all that much of an improvement relative to the original Galaxy Fold’s lackluster scratch-resistance. From all reports, the Galaxy Z Fold2 didn’t offer much improvement on this front either.
As a rule, glass screens tend to provide more protection than plastic displays. Unfortunately, when it comes to foldable smartphones, these usual rules don’t apply. In order to make glass bend, you have to make it so thin that its ability to provide adequate everyday protection comes into question.
Unless or until new technologies solve this trade-off, foldables with glass screens are almost just as susceptible to damage as their plastic counterparts.
Is Samsung’s Ultra Thin Glass really glass?
The short answer to this question: yes. The screen on the Galaxy Fold2 and Galaxy Z Flip is really made of glass and it does bend. This part of the screen —supplied by German manufacturer Schott —might be fragile enough to necessitate a secondary plastic layer but it’s definitely glass.
The longer answer? Well, it depends how you define glass.
In a technical or legal sense, the display on the Galaxy Z Flip is indeed made of glass. However, it’s so thin that it defies a lot of the characteristics most people would associate with glass.
How does Samsung make Ultra Thin Glass?
As mentioned above, Samsung sources the glass used in the Galaxy Z Flip from Schott. However, the German manufacturer are more-or-less only handling the raw materials here.
Reports suggest that Samsung has been working with another Korean company — Dowoo Insys — towards commercializing UTG since 2013. Samsung have a controlling share in Dowoo Insys, who boast a proprietary method for processing regular glass into UTG.
Our only description of this process comes via Samsung themselves:
The glass, while only 30㎛ thick, is produced using an intensifying process to enhance its flexibility and durability. In the process, the UTG is injected with a special material up to an undisclosed depth to achieve a consistent hardness.
