According to analyst firm CCSInsight, smartphones with self-healing capabilities will begin to appear on the market in large numbers by 2028. In its roundup of top tech predictions for 2024 and beyond, CCSInsight said it expects smartphone manufacturers to start producing phones with "self-healing" displays within five years.
This is achieved by adding a "nano-coating" to the surface of the display, which if scratched creates a new material that reacts to fill in the defects when exposed to air.
Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCSInsight, said in an interview: "This is not science fiction, it can be done... I think the biggest challenge is setting expectations correctly."
Global smartphone manufacturers have been discussing self-healing smartphone display technology for years.
South Korean consumer electronics giant LG promoted self-healing technology on its smartphones as early as 2013. The company released a smartphone called GFlex, which features a vertically curved screen and a "self-healing" coating on the back. The company didn't explain how the technology worked at the time. It has been proven that LG's GFlex mobile phone can withstand some medium to low intensity friction and scratches during use, which can prevent the mobile phone from being scratched or worn every day and enhance the durability of the mobile phone.
"There are some new technologies being looked at now and it looks like this might be something people try again," Wood said. "We're not talking about a smashed screen miraculously coming back. These are just small scratches on the surface."
Several other phone makers are also touting self-healing materials in smartphones. In 2017, Motorola patented a screen made from "shape memory polymer" that can repair itself when broken. The idea is that when heat is applied to the material, it will heal the cracks.
At the same time, Apple has previously obtained a patent for a foldable iPhone with a display cover that can repair itself when damaged.
However, this technology has not yet been implemented into commercially successful mobile phones. Moreover, there are still some obstacles to launching such phones on a large scale.
First, companies need to invest heavily in R&D to ensure they can discover new innovations on smartphone screens. Marketing and selling such phones in large quantities also requires an investment of cash and ensuring that consumers truly understand what level of damage can be repaired without any human intervention.
Wood joked that he was concerned that some tech teardown enthusiasts on social media would take knives to test their ability to repair themselves. That's not the point of self-healing devices, he said. Rather, it is a technique that can perform minimal repairs to a surface on its own.
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