Samsung officially unveiled its new foldables — Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 — at the Galaxy Unpacked event last week. A major focus on the third-gen foldables has been to make them more durable for everyday usage. For example, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 has IPX8 water resistance, a new protective film on the inner display for improved structural integrity, a stronger metallic hinge, and more. Apart from improved durability, there are some other improvements that Samsung didn’t tell us about at the launch event. It turns out the Galaxy Z Fold 3 comes with a new generation of OLED panel called Eco²OLED that claims to be much more power-efficient than the current OLED display technology while also offering an eco-friendly design and improved under-display camera.

Samsung Display on Monday detailed the Eco Square OLED panel ( Eco²OLED,) the company's latest OLED display technology for smartphones. The new Eco²OLED panel gets rid of the traditional polarizer layer, an opaque plastic film that sits between the actual panel and cover glass. This dark polarizer layer plays an important role in the current OLED panel as it blocks external light from entering and reflecting off the display, thus improving contrast and visibility. But as AnandTech explains, the problem with using the polarizer layer is that it reduces transmittance and absorbs some of the light emitted from the panel, thus requiring more light and power to achieve the ideal viewing experience.

Eco²OLED comparision with the traditional OLED panel structure

The Eco²OLED display claims to fix both issues by removing the traditional polarizer layer, which in turn improves the transmittance rate (screen brightness) by up to 33% and reduces power consumption by up to 25%. In simpler terms, the new panel technology offers a brighter display while still using less power. According to Samsung, since the Eco²OLED eliminates the polarizer, it also improves the light transmission to the under-display camera.

The Eco²OLED panel is debuting first on the new Galaxy Z Fold 3 as a foldable display. Samsung hasn't detailed if it'll be using the new panel on other upcoming Galaxy devices.