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Carbon-fiber phones and tablets on the horizon from Samsung?

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A new joint venture between Samsung and carbon fiber specialist SGL Group suggests that the company may be looking at the hi-tech material as an alternative to its traditional plastic handsets and tablets.

The cooperation is expected to provide a stable long-term supply of carbon fiber materials for Samsung and promote its use in various Samsung products and applications such as consumer electronics, medical devices and engineering applications. Carbon fiber materials from SGL Group will be preferred by the Joint Venture … 

Samsung’s choice of plastic rather than metal for high-end handsets like the S4 has sometimes been criticised when compared with the aluminum used by Apple and in the HTC One. Carbon fiber would be a way to not only match the perceived quality of metal handsets, but to beat them.

Carbon offers ten times the strength-to-weight ratio of steel, enabling strong structures to be built that weigh virtually nothing. More importantly, perhaps, for Samsung, its use in things like aerospace and Indy cars means that it is the one material that would be considered even cooler than metal.

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It wouldn’t be the first time carbon fiber has been used to make handsets. Nokia made the 8800 Carbon Arte way back in 2008.

nokiaIf the material can make a handset that old look cool, just think what it could do for an S5 …

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