Patent reveals Samsung is working on a fully transparent smartphone

A new patent titled “Transparent Display Device and the Method of Manufacturing the Same” appears to suggest Samsung is working on a full transparent smartphone.

A new patent titled “Transparent Display Device and the Method of Manufacturing the Same” appears to suggest Samsung is working on a full transparent smartphone.

The patent focuses on creating a transparent screen that has both high brightness and improved transparency, but the accompanying drawings (above) show off a thin, near-bezel-less device with hardly any opaque components at all.

LetsGoDigital has partnered with Giuseppe Spinelli, aka Snoreyn , to visualize the device, which can be seen in the renders below:

There are of course two questions with the design. One is where the other components will go, and secondly what the point of such a design would be.

The first can be answered in two interesting ways. One is that components get constantly miniaturized and may fit into even small off-screen areas and secondly that transparent versions of many other components, such as transparent batteries actually do exist.

Hironobu Minowa, demonstrating a transparent battery at NTT’s R&D Forum

The second, about the point of such a device, is less apparent, but with the phone market now very mature, companies are forced to innovate more and more to differentiate themselves from their competitors, and such a device may simply be part of the same evolutionary struggle, a bit like the tail of a peacock.

The full patent can be seen here.