Early folding phones were notorious for the internal display being vulnerable to damage. Indeed, the first Samsung Galaxy Fold saw all pre-orders cancelled because of this issue.
A new supply chain report suggests that Apple is adopting two further measures in order to protect the iPhone Fold display, as well as reduce the visibility of the crease …
The Samsung Galaxy Fold disaster
The original launch of the Galaxy Fold is probably now a case study in industrial engineering classes.
It was only days after the first review units shipped when the first problems with the device were reported. As more screen failure reports followed, Samsung delayed the launch by ‘at least’ a month, and took back review units. Finally, the company cancelled all pre-orders because of the issue.
A solution to the visible crease
One of the reasons Apple was said to have waited so long to launch a folding iPhone was that the company was unhappy with a very visible crease. It was reported that the Cupertino company rejected multiple samples provided by display partner Samsung before getting its own designers heavily involved to solve this problem.
Apple engineers were also said to have worked closely with Samsung on the hinge mechanism in order to protect the screen from damage.
Protecting the display
Previous reports said that Apple would use new button placements in order to reduce the risk of damage to ribbon cables during the fold, and fit a much tougher built-in screen protector.
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