At CES 2026 Samsung has been showing off a new creaseless foldable display – and Apple’s heavily tipped iPhone foldable could be a major beneficiary.
The Consumer Electronics Show is taking place in Las Vegas this week, and the world’s biggest smartphone maker is well represented.
Perhaps the most intriguing thing on display (at least for this phone-obsessed writer) is a foldable display with no visible crease. Or rather, we should say that it was on display. Intriguingly, Samsung has since whisked the component off the showroom floor.
“The foldable panel showcased at the booth was an R&D concept, with no fixed timeline or plan for commercialisation,” a PR spokesperson told The Verge. All the attention appears to have made Samsung Display skittish about a product that seemingly isn’t yet ready for the big time.
Tipster Ice Universe managed to obtain some snaps of this “R&D concept”, which was positioned alongside a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 for easy comparison. You can clearly see that the new component lacks the telltale vertical strip shadow of our favourite foldable phone.
According to a snap grabbed by SamMobile from the showroom floor, Samsung is boasting of “seamless text across the fold”.
Is it me, or does this screen tech also just look flat out better from an angle, with less off-axis discolouration? It’s impossible to say for sure without seeing the product ourselves.
It’s also expected to implement under-display camera technology. Ordinarily I’m not a fan (see the awful selfies taken by the Nubia Z80 Ultra for the reason why), but given that foldables enable you to use the main camera for selfies, this could represent a positive move.
As we reported back in April of last year, there are rumours that Apple is going all in with Samsung for the display on its first foldable iPhone. The reason for this is the company’s apparent creaseless breakthrough, which has seemingly been confirmed here.
All of which would appear to place a bit of added of time pressure on Samsung, if it’s to beat Apple to the punch by applying its own breakthrough innovation to a product. If Apple launches its iPhone Fold in September, as has been predicted, then Samsung would need to implement its creaseless display into the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 or Wide Fold, which are rumoured for July.
Author: Jon Mundy, Contributor, Tech Advisor
Jon is a freelance journalist who got his start covering mobile games at the dawn of the App Store. He has since covered everything from smart home tech and laptops to food and culture, but always seems to return to his fascination with smartphones.