While everyone is looking to enter the foldable smartphone market soon, Apple might be onto something very unique. One of Apple’s patents published yesterday shows the idea of a foldable smartphone with a “self-healing” display that can repair dents or scratches on the screen on its own.
ALSO READ
iPhone 12 Prices Start at $650: Leak
This patent was spotted by Patently Apple and was originally filed by the company back in January. It shows a foldable smartphone that can repair its own display without the user manually having to intervene. According to the patent, the device will use heat, light, and electricity to repair a protective layer above the screen. This can be done while the device is charging or during predetermined schedules.
The patent adds that the device’s hypothetical screen would be able to lose and regain its shape to protect the sensitive internal structure of the display. This would make the foldable phone’s display more durable.
The concept of self-healing smartphones has been tried and tested by LG before but it didn’t go as planned. The LG G Flex from 2013 was supposed to repair minor scrapes and scratches on its rear cover but it did not do well during live testing.
However, since it is only a patent, there is no clear indication of whether Apple is working on a self-healing foldable phone. Even if the company is working on it, such a technology would take years to perfect and release commercially, so nothing should be expected until at least 2022.
