Samsung keep taking steps forward to be able to offer every time tablets with a better value for money. Specifically, they are testing a new technology for flexible screens that would reduce costs and allow the use of stylus without digitizer in low-cost tablets.
According to the Korean outlet ET News, Samsung's research team is testing touch panels that use a metal mesh technology, using silver and copper that would replace ITO (indium tin oxide). These come from different suppliers in South Korea itself, but also from China.
The first advantage of these touch panels is that they have little surface resistance that allows them to be flexible and foldable and that can be easily integrated into tablet screens. This would reduce the costs of the displays, being cheaper to produce and could lower the final price for the consumer, allowing Samsung to lower the price of all its devices.
The other advantage is that they support the use of stylus without the need for a digitizer chip to control the pressure on the screen. In other words, the obligation to introduce a chip that controls it could be eliminated. This, again, lowers prices and allows them to be include stylus in low-profile tablets and not only in the high-end ones as Samsung is used to with the Galaxy Note line up to now.
A race to cheaper tablets from Galaxy Tab 3
The truth is that the endowment and prices of the Galaxy Tab 3 surprised us because they seemed to be very focused on the low-end and low cost. A very strong differentiation was seen with respect to the high-end that Note represents.
The most likely explanation is that the Koreans were defending themselves against the barrage of low-cost tablets from Chinese private labels and from which large companies are signing in as a reaction to the same phenomenon.
Source: ET NEWS