Are you bothered by (too) thick screen borders? Samsung wants to develop screens for smartphones that cover the entire front of the device.

The “screen-to-body” ratio expresses how much area the screen occupies on the housing of a smartphone. When announcing new devices, manufacturers like to announce shares of over ninety percent. According to Samsung, it gets even better: The company’s display department showed a prototype during a trade fair in South Korea, in which the screen fills the entire front.

The bezels of smartphone screens seem to be getting thinner every year and there aren’t even any bezels on this new model of Samsung screen. The front camera is then processed under the screen, eliminating the need to “punch hole” the screen. Samsung claims that positioning the camera in the display increases brightness by 1.4x when the camera is on.

fold and roll

It will likely be some time before this design finds its way into commercial devices. The main purpose of the exhibition was to demonstrate the latest developments in the demonstration laboratory. In early 2023, Samsung also showed a “slide-out” screen for smartphones and tablets, a screen that can be folded 360°, and brought smartphones with an S- and G-shaped fold line to the MWC trade fair in Barcelona.

One hundred percent

But Apple is also working step by step on a screen that can cover the entire surface. For example, the upcoming iPhone 15 would come with thinner bezels again. By 2027 Apple wants to hide the front camera in the display and by 2029 the iPhone should have a screen-to-body ratio of 100 percent. Perhaps we can expect a similar schedule from Samsung.