New display coating to shield from ugly fingerprints

Glass-bodied smartphones are an eye candy — there’s no second thought to it. Samsung popularised the trend with their flagship phones a few years ago and now every smartphone manufacturer has embraced glass builds for their flagship as well as midrange smartphones. However, while they may be oozing desirability, maintaining them is tough as they are prone to scuffs and ugly smudges. Samsung though seems to have figured out a solution.

One of Samsung’s latest patents has been discovered that appears to describe a new kind of film or coating meant to keep fingerprints and minor scratches at bay. The listing describes the layer as an ‘anti-fingerprinting composition having a self-healing property, which includes a polyrotaxane, polyhedral silsesquioxane, and a fluorinated (meth)acryl compound.’

In plain English, the special oleophobic coating will ensure that ugly smudges won’t be spoiling the look of your premium glass-bodied phone while out in the wild. It’s not clear what ‘self-healing’ means in context. However, we assume that either the coating will help with healing minor scratches or retain itself over a course of time.

The description certainly doesn’t indicate that the coating will also heal cracks and dents on the glass — for that, Samsung’s special bendy unbreakable display concept will have to step in, which is claimed to be more durable than the recently unveiled Gorilla Glass 6.  

(source)