Samsung is famous for trying to bring something new to the market. This sets the South Korean company apart from many other Android smartphone manufacturers. However, sometimes such a desire leads somewhere in the wrong place. As a result, concepts and even patents of transparent smartphones are born. To argue with the fact that it looks spectacular is at least not logical. As a showcase for engineering excellence, that's good. That is why transparent gadgets are shown in science fiction films. Just imagine how to use it when you need to read some text or see a picture. Its quality will be just awful and it is better to let it be displayed on an opaque substrate than to look at puddles on the road through a smartphone screen. Maybe Samsung thinks differently?
This is how the new Samsung might look if the company implements its patent.
Transparent Samsung Phone
If you thought Samsung's ambitions for foldable phones were wacky, think again. Now the company has started to play with transparent devices and even patented them. If such a patent has appeared, it may mean that with a high degree of probability the company is working on such a project and is seriously preparing it for implementation. The patent application was filed back in January this year, but the patent itself appeared only in August. He describes not only a new type of device, but also the complex stages and technologies required to create such a gadget.
Every pixel on your phone's display allows light to pass through it. Actually, it is their property that makes the screen transparent. On Samsung patents, this transparent screen resembles a window through which the owner's hand can be seen. Only the side frames are opaque. Most likely, they are reinforcements of the structure, giving it rigidity. They can also contain various electronic components that simply cannot be transparent. At least they cannot be transparent yet.
Samsung's new patent
The patents were discovered by the Dutch LetsGoDigital, which also provided a mockup of the device in question. I am more than sure that such a “toy” will be completely useless in everyday life. The picture will be worse, and the requirements for the environment (light, background uniformity, etc.) will be very severe. Perhaps in some other places the technology will be much more useful. But a company, if it implements its patent, will have a powerful marketing tool. It will allow her to draw attention to herself as a technology company at the forefront of the development of the future.
Just imagine how you will look for it before leaving the house.
After all, science fiction films have been showing us the gadgets of the future like this for years. As we know, in order to gain popularity, it is not at all necessary to do something super useful, just spectacular is enough. An example is Musk's flamethrower and even Tesla itself. It is good, but they also managed to present it well.
When the first transparent phone was made
Dreams of transparent phones are not new. Back in 2009, LG had a problem with the GD900, but it only had a transparent keyboard. Sony Ericsson showed off the Xperia Pureness, which had a transparent display to its credit. However, there was nothing good about him and it looked so-so.
There was such a thing in history.
Samsung also had experience with transparent displays, although it made them mainly for stationary gadgets and advertising signs, where there was enough room for electronics. The smartphone has much less space and the real problem is the correct location of all the components that are responsible for the operation of the gadget.
The company will need to find a way to accommodate the battery and other components so as not to interfere with the transparent display, or somehow make these elements transparent, which is even more difficult. This is a problem that was demonstrated by the Taiwanese firm Polytron Technologies in a transparent phone in 2013. The SD card and ribbon cables were still visible despite the device's significant transparency.
Many want to, but no one will.
There is no need to talk about making the battery, processor, memory and other internal components transparent in the near future. At this stage of development of technologies and materials used is not necessary. Moreover, even if in theory it is possible, spending insane amounts of money on such developments, in fact on rebuilding batteries and processors, is simply illogical.
Unfortunately, such patents do not often develop into real technologies, and even more so into finished products. Most likely, this is just a desire to “stake out” a place, if development still goes in this direction. You can also show off when you communicate with investors or report on your achievements to the leadership of the entire Samsung Corporation. Let me remind you that electronics is only a small part of the company's business. It does many other things, including even huge oil tankers.
Let's see what happens, but for now it's just a patent for a patent and nothing more. Even transparent charging from AliExpress is much more promising and beautiful. What do you think about this?