Samsung Display: Zero bezel displays with UPC inbound, aligns with Apple’s rumored iPhone plans

Samsung Display has revealed that it is working on a “zero bezel” smartphone panel with under-panel camera (UPC) tech. The announcement was made at the K-Display Business Forum in Seoul, South Korea with the company’s managing director, Jung Yong-wook, saying that it was working towards unveiling a working prototype. The news is significant as it aligns with a recent rumor from tipster Ice Universe who revealed that Apple was planning on creating a zero-bezel iPhone in its current road map.

The Samsung Display presentation included a slide that even showed a current iPhone 14 Pro with its large pill-shaped True Depth Camera System cutout potentially evolving into something that features an “all around full screen” display. A small portion of the current iPhone 14 Pro True Depth Camera System (which incorporates Face ID) is already under the display, suggesting that Apple is keen to continue on this trajectory to finally return iPhones to a fully immersive, uninterrupted viewing experience. Yong-wook acknowledged that UPCs still need improving, but said that this new panel will have greater than 50 percent light transmittance with an optimized pixel structure.

While Apple appears to be slowly evolving to an under-panel True Depth Camera System, something noted display analyst Ross Young has pointed to in the recent past, it also appears to be on a path towards eliminating bezels. The next-generation iPhone 15 Pro series is widely expected to feature narrower display bezels than the iPhone 14 Pro series that preceded it. This new Samsung panel could make a zero-bezel iPhone a reality at the same time. To help with resilience, Samsung says its panel will feature 3D lamination, although it is hard to imagine that it would be anything other than more vulnerable to damage if dropped.

Based on Ross Young’s expectations around an iPhone with an under-panel camera – and assuming that Samsung is able to deliver on its zero bezel panel with UPC – the earliest we might see an iPhone with this technology would be the iPhone 17 Pro.

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