Samsung's 'crease-less' foldable spotted at CES 2026

At CES 2026, Samsung appears to have inadvertently hinted at the future of its foldable smartphones. A video from the company’s demo booth has surfaced online, showing a device that looks almost indistinguishable from today’s Galaxy Z Fold models, but with one crucial change: a near-invisible crease on the inner display.

The footage was posted by well-known insider Max Jambor and picked up by SamMobile. On Samsung’s stand, two opened foldables were displayed: on the left, a device closely resembling the Galaxy Z Fold 7; on the right, an unknown model labeled “Advanced Crease-less.” It’s the latter whose crease looks notably less pronounced than on any previous Fold generation.

The video makes it clear that a slight curve still remains in the center, visible only at certain light angles, yet the familiar deep groove is gone. Insiders suggest this panel could underpin the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and become the first truly flat inner display in Samsung’s mass-produced foldables. If what’s on the stand translates to retail units, that would be a meaningful quality-of-life upgrade rather than a mere cosmetic tweak.

There’s another wrinkle worth noting: Samsung Display is rumored to be developing a similar approach for the first foldable iPhone. That raises the odds that Apple and Samsung could debut devices in 2026 with a new type of flexible OLED—arriving in different sizes and aspect ratios, but sharing a common goal of minimizing the crease. A parallel push from both companies would signal that smoothing out the fold is becoming a baseline expectation for the category.

Samsung has not issued official comments. New foldables from the Korean company are traditionally expected in the summer, while a foldable iPhone may follow later, still within 2026—timelines that sound plausible, even if they remain unconfirmed.