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In a secluded room deep inside Samsung Display’s headquarters in South Korea, rows of gray and black machines hum frequently, bending and testing the company’s latest mobile phone screens. During my visit in mid-June, I was among the first people outside the company to do so Step inside the high-security laboratory And watch how Samsung pushes its foldable displays to their limits before they reach consumers.
Samsung on Tuesday unveiled Flex Titanium, a new display technology for its displays Upcoming foldable Galaxy phones Including the Z Fold 8. It combines a layer of titanium alloy with a titanium plate to create a thinner, more durable display structure designed to better withstand drops and other impacts — an important consideration for the Z Fold 8. Foldable phones Which can cost thousands of dollars.
Samsung Display designs and manufactures displays for Samsung Electronics as well as competitors including Apple, and has become one of the leaders in developing advanced, flexible display technology. In addition to commercial products, the company regularly exhibits Future display concepts For phones, tablets and other devices.
Watch this: I went to Samsung’s secret display lab and saw the wildest phone concepts
Samsung also made its foldable phones thinner – last year Galaxy Z Fold 7 It measures 4.2mm when unfolded – and the company is looking at ways to shrink the various components Maintain a neat profile. Samsung says it spent about three years developing the Flex Titanium technology while examining customer feedback across seven generations of its foldable phones.
“We have to understand user behavior and different display challenges such as falling or being squeezed by a large object or a small object,” Samsung executive vice president Byung-duk-yang said in an interview. “For this reason, we have developed a comprehensive and highly sophisticated evaluation method to understand real-world user behavior.”
These are devices that fold Samsung screens hundreds of thousands of times to ensure durability.
Endurance testing of foldable screens
As we navigated the bright white, maze-like corridors that stretch beneath Samsung Display’s headquarters in Korea, about 20 miles from Seoul, our guide touted the uniqueness of what we would see. “No one from outside the company — not even the employee’s mother and father — was here,” she said as she led us to the testing lab.
In this isolated room, accessible only to engineers, equipment works around the clock, folding and unfolding display panels to ensure they can pass 500,000 folding tests. Once the metal latch is closed, the Z Fold 8 panels (there are currently four inside) are exposed to extreme temperatures ranging from -20 degrees to 60 degrees Celsius (or -4 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit). It’s not just displays that are tested for durability. The hinges that operate the folding mechanism also need to withstand repeated stress.
Outside the device, the screen shows what’s happening inside from eight different camera angles. Screenshots, which are also recorded, can detect issues such as the screen lifting off the device’s frame. Currently, the displays being tested are offline, but the machine can evaluate how operational displays respond to extreme conditions as well.
The device to my left is testing the screen’s image quality. You can slide the panels open to look inside through the small windows.
Down another long corridor (I feel like I’m in an episode of… to cut At this point, we enter a laboratory to examine the screen’s image quality, including brightness and color. After placing a display in the center of the machine and closing what looks like a miniature garage door with sliding windows for viewing, testing begins.
A series of bright lights project onto the panel, and the machine measures how much light is reflected – the less, the better. This is for several reasons: the screen’s colors appear deeper, less reflection makes it easier to see the screen under bright lighting and you’re less likely to stare at your reflection when you’re looking at your phone. Testing a single panel takes about three minutes.
Ball drop testing ensures that the screen can effectively absorb and distribute pressure from a small heavy metal ball.
Another test seemed fairly simple compared to these more in-depth technical mechanics, but it is no less important for ensuring the screen’s durability. A towering 220-pound machine, sitting on a table, holds a marble-sized metal ball weighing about 21 grams. An arm-like structure drops the ball from a height of 30cm onto the screen three times to ensure it does not crack. In our demo, we pushed the limits to drops above 40 and 50cm, and the screen absorbed and distributed the pressure effectively to avoid damage.
This marble sized ball is small but powerful. It is dropped on the display board to test whether it is cracked.
Make a “better offer”
Samsung’s new Flex Titanium is all about enhancing durability without adding bulk. Compared to polymer film, titanium alloy film has 20 times greater mechanical rigidity, the company says, meaning it holds its shape better. This component is located at the bottom of the OLED panel and is less than a third as thick as a human hair. Below that is the titanium plate, which Samsung says can provide more stable support when opening the phone without compromising flexibility.
Last year’s Z Fold 7 also used a titanium panel, but the display body was made up of multiple polymer-based support layers. The company says that Samsung has now combined these layers into a single titanium alloy film, reducing the thickness of the display unit while maintaining strength, flexibility and long-term durability.
Samsung Flex Titanium screen layers.
See also: Beyond the Galaxy Z Fold: Samsung’s future phone concepts that roll, slide and expand
It’s worth noting that the upgraded display also features less crease – a Increasing focal point In the world of foldable phones. The Samsung screen showed a Foldable concept screen without creasing At CES earlier this year. The company is reportedly working with Apple to develop a wrinkle-free display Foldable iPhoneWhich could debut this fall. What I saw on Samsung Display in June still has minimal creasing, though it’s much less noticeable than on the Z Fold 7.
At CES 2026, Samsung Display showed off a concept for a wrinkle-free display.
Samsung is set to share more about the Flex Titanium and upcoming foldable Galaxy devices, including the Z Fold 8, during its conference. Summer unpacked It happened on July 22. These advances appear to be a step toward mitigating many of the durability and aesthetic compromises that Foldable phones have been around for a long time – Although the work is still far from finished.
“Years ago, Samsung created this foldable category,” Yang said. “The foldable screen and structure we developed have become the standard. So we feel some responsibility towards this market; we have to offer a better offer.”
