Galaxy Fold s Bendable Screen Is Still Flawed. Is Diamond Glass The Solution

id="article-body" class="row" section="article-body"> A foldable phone screen made from glass is only a matter of time. Angela Lang/CNET Foldable phones like the Galaxy Fold have a big problem -- the screen. Today's phones use plastic cover materials, but bendable glass is the Holy Grail of foldable phone design because of its ability to repel the damage from casual scrapes sustained by polymer. Without a rigid top layer, the phone's internal workings are susceptible to breaking.

One company I spoke with last week at CES thinks it's found the answer: mobile apps diamond glass. Turns out, keeping the delicate, flexible electronic display beneath the surface safe from pressure, water, dust and sharp objects is difficult when you don't have a hard material to protect it. Samsung bore the brunt of this reality when its Galaxy Fold sustained several types of screen damage before the Fold officially went on sale.

But diamond glass is hard, said Adam Khan, founder and CEO of Akhan Semiconductor, Mobile Games mobile apps which is developing Miraj Diamond Glass, and will be completely foldable. "Nano-diamond is actually semiflexible by itself, and we can coat flexible glass," said Khan. Miraj Diamond Glass is a material made from lab-manufactured nano-diamond materials. It's sprayed onto a surface in a layer that measures just 100 nanometers, or 1/10,000th the thickness of a strand of hair. Diamond glass can coat either a plastic (polymer) sheet or a slip of untreated bendable glass.

Foldable phones like the Motorola Razr use plastic screens and reveal a crease at the bend.  James Martin/CNET With their high prices and untested designs, APKX foldable phones are a tough sell as is. A strong cover material to protect against drops and scratches could help shift foldable phones from expensive curiosities to serious products that could one day replace your traditional shingle-shaped phone. Akhan Semiconductor isn't the only company working toward a stronger material for foldable phones.

Gorilla Glass-maker Corning showed CNET glass that's thin enough to fold without breaking, but it's still in development and APKX isn't commercially available.  If it were, we'd see a lot more foldable phones today. Without a ready supply of glass thin enough to fold in half and strong enough not to crack, splinter or break, device-makers have had to choose whether to wait for a new material or work with what they have. Now playing: apk hack Watch this: The bendable glass that's shaping up to cover foldable...

4:06 Diamond versus plastic: Is it all it's cracked up to be? Apart from being one of the strongest substances on Earth -- diamond glass reportedly withstood lasers in a recent demo with Lockheed -- diamond crystal might not suffer the same unsightly screen creasing that appears where the Galaxy Fold, Huawei Mate X and Motorola Razr screens bend in half.