Samsung Electronics (005930) unveiled ‘Flex Titanium’ on July 15, a next-generation display technology that dramatically improves the screen crease\u2014long considered the biggest weakness of foldable smartphones. The technology will debut in the 8th-generation foldable ‘Galaxy Z Fold 8’ series at ‘Galaxy Unpacked 2026’ in London, UK, on July 22 (local time).<\/p>\n
The core of Flex Titanium, which Samsung developed by consolidating seven generations of foldable product expertise, lies in a dual-layer structure that replaces existing plastic materials with titanium. Beneath the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel, a ‘titanium alloy film’ with approximately 20 times the rigidity of conventional polymer film is placed, combined with an upgraded ‘titanium plate’ underneath, simultaneously enhancing the display’s durability and flexibility.<\/p>\n
The titanium alloy film is manufactured through an ultra-precision rolling process to roughly one-third the thickness of a human hair, contributing to a slimmer product while significantly increasing resistance to repeated folding and external impact. The titanium plate employs advanced hole-processing technology to reduce the size of microscopic holes in the folding area, preventing stress concentration at specific points and improving the screen crease. Samsung Display Vice President Yoo Kyung-jin explained, “We succeeded in achieving both flexibility and high durability by processing precise micro-pattern holes in the folding area of the titanium plate.”<\/p>\n
Samsung’s technology reveal is drawing heightened attention ahead of Apple’s entry into the foldable market. Apple is also expected to launch its first foldable product in the second half of this year, reportedly adopting a differentiated strategy by applying a glass material called ‘G-barrier’ between the OLED and titanium backplate. Industry observers note that while Samsung’s titanium film and Apple’s G-barrier serve the same function, the two companies’ technological philosophies diverge in materials and approach.<\/p>\n
Apple is expected to not only use ultra-thin glass (UTG) for the cover window but also apply glass material beneath the OLED, creating a structure where both the ‘UTG top’ and ‘UTG bottom’ layers are glass. Analysts also suggest Apple is increasing the proportion of Chinese suppliers in its hinge and UTG component supply chain to differentiate itself from Samsung.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics is understood to have designed the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s cover window UTG thickness at around 60 micrometers (\u03bcm), over 30% thicker than its predecessor, to further reduce the screen crease. A thicker UTG improves the screen crease and strengthens durability against external impact. The Galaxy Z Fold 8’s UTG thickness is maintained at 45\u03bcm, the same as the previous model.<\/p>\n
Beyond the Flex Titanium display, the new device is expected to feature Qualcomm’s latest processor, the ‘Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy,’ delivering powerful on-device AI performance. The chip can process up to 100 trillion AI operations per second, enabling tasks such as translation, summarization, and photo editing directly on the device without cloud connectivity. Google’s AI assistant ‘Gemini Intelligence’ will also be integrated, supporting multitasking across multiple apps.<\/p>\n
Samsung has launched aggressive marketing ahead of the new product release. In Canada, it is offering trade-in benefits of up to 1,500 Canadian dollars (~1.59 million won), a significant increase from the previous model’s 1,100 Canadian dollars (~1.17 million won). The Galaxy Z Fold 8’s starting price for the base configuration is expected to be $2,099 (~3.1 million won), a $100 (~150,000 won) increase from the previous model’s $1,999 (~3 million won).<\/p>\n
South Korean carriers are also incorporating AI subscription services into their plans to coincide with the new product launch. KT will introduce four new plans starting August 3, including ‘Choice Double YouTube Premium + Google AI Plus’ and ‘Choice 90 Google AI Plus.’ Google AI Plus is a subscription service worth 7,500 won (approximately $5.07) per month, providing access to Gemini 3.1 Pro and the image generation model Nano Banana Pro. KT stated, “Plan activation will be available from August 3, and pre-order customers for the new model can also select the new plans.”<\/p>\n
SK Telecom also introduced Google AI Plus and Google AI Pro on its subscription platform ‘T Universe’ earlier this month, while LG Uplus is selling bundled products combining YouTube Premium and Google AI services on its ‘U-dok’ platform. Industry analysts note that AI subscriptions are emerging as a new core benefit of telecom plans, following OTT subscription perks. According to Microsoft’s think tank, the AI Economy Institute, South Korea’s generative AI usage rate reached 37.1% in the first quarter of this year, up 6.4 percentage points from the previous quarter, recording the steepest growth globally.<\/p>\n
Samsung Electronics Vice President Moon Sung-hoon, head of hardware at the MX Division, emphasized, “Samsung’s competitiveness lies in combining a deep understanding of consumer needs with technology that delivers practical value in daily life. The next-generation Galaxy foldable, newly born from years of accumulated display technology expertise, will provide an unprecedented viewing experience and completely revolutionize the user experience.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Samsung Electronics (005930) unveiled ‘Flex Titanium’ on July 15, a next-generation display technology that dramatically improves the screen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[3628,45879,40884,562,46687,16460,23122,127,276,5887,45881],"class_list":["post-88724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-samsung-electronics","tag-apple","tag-flex-titanium","tag-galaxy-unpacked-2026","tag-galaxy-z-fold-8","tag-google-ai-plus","tag-kt","tag-qualcomm","tag-samsung","tag-samsung-electronics","tag-snapdragon-8-elite-gen-5","tag-titanium-alloy-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}