AMOLED - introduction and market status - Page 18

Samsung recently announced its latest flagship phone series, the Galaxy S20. Our display measurement friends from DisplayMate tested the new display - and unsurprisingly it turns out that the new Samsung Display AMOLED displays are very impressive - and they earn DisplayMate's highest ever display performance grade.

DisplayMate tested the Galaxy S20 Ultra, with its 6.9" 1440x3200 (511 PPI), 120Hz, Dynamic AMOLED display. The display has "close to text book perfect" calibration accuracy and its performance is visually indistinguishable from perfect. The new Samsung OLED display is setting or matching 12 smartphone display performance records.

In December 2019 Cadillac announced that its 2021 Escalade will sport a 38-inch curved OLED display. Rumors suggested that LG is the producer of this display, and indeed Cadillac now unveiled the car and its next-generation display - and LG confirmed that this is indeed its P-OLED screen.

The displays, which will come standard on all 2021 Escalade versions, include an instrument cluster and infotainment systems, and enable several customizable displays which include AR navigation and night vision modes. There are actually three different displays - from left to right a 7" display, an 14" one and a 16.9" display. The center 14" is the instrument cluster and it is not-touch enabled (the other two do include touch).

There are many standard OLED displays on the market, ranging from small PMOLED displays to smartphone-sized AMOLEDs with embedded touch abilities (and even larger ones, of course). As every company wants the optimum display for its product, many reach out to us to assist with designing a custom OLED for their project. But what does this process really entail? And who it is right for?

Does it make sense to engage an OLED display maker with a custom display? It depends on your application, budget and volume requirement. As you will see below, creating a custom OLED is never a simple project and will require a hefty sum (tooling fee, also referred to by some as NRE, or Non-Recurring Engineering) and a large minimum order requirement (MOQ). Remember that the OLED industry is still an emerging one and the displays (and all related services) are relatively expensive compared to LCDs.

In January 2019 Taiwan-based INT Tech unveiled its proprietary glass-based high pixel density OLED technology, and the company now announced that its first prototype display was produced and successfully tested.

INT Tech's display is a 0.7" 2,300 PPI real RGB side-by-side AMOLED display. INT Tech says that its technology enables larger displays with higher brightness, lower power consumption and a wider color gamut compared to currently available OLED microdisplays which are produced on silicon.

In May 2019 OnePlus launched the OnePlus 7 Pro - a flagship smartphone that features a large 6.67" 90Hz 1440x3120 Fluid AMOLED - a 90Hz Super AMOLED (produced by Samsung Display).

OnePlus now officially announced that its next phone (the OnePlus 8) will feature a high-end AMOLED, developed in collaboration with Samsung, that will feature a refresh rate of 120Hz, a peak brightness of 1,000 nits, 10-bit color support and a 2K+ resolution. OnePlus again brands its Super AMOLED displays as Fluid Display. The touch sample rate will be 240Hz and the phone will include a hardware MEMC smooth-video accelerator.

IHS Markit says that smartphone AMOLED shipments reached 146 million in Q3 2019 - a record high, and up from 93 million in the second quarter. LTPS LCD shipments reached 144 million - and this is the first quarter in which AMOLED shipments surpassed LTPS LCD shipments. a-SI LCD is still the leading technology with shipments of 177 million.

Following the increased demand for AMOLED displays, Samsung Display regained its leading position in the market (with a 29% market share), replacing BOE. The third largest suppler is Tianma.

Motorola says that due to unexpected high demand, it is delaying the launch of its $1,500 foldable OLED phone, the Razr 2019. The company did not announce a new launch date (previously it was December 26th) but says that the company "does not anticipate a significant shift from our original availability timeline".

Motorola says that "Since its announcement in November, the new motorola razr has received unparalleled excitement and interest from consumers. Demand has been high, and as a result, has quickly outgrown supply predictions".

IHS Markit says that rigid AMOLED is the leading smartwatch display technology, with a market share of 36% (in Q4 2019) - up from a market share of only 14% in the beginning of 2019. Rigid AMOLEDs enjoy the fastest growth of all display technologies.

All OLED displays together (PMOLED, AMOLED and flexible OLEDs) take up a market share of 69%. The market share of PMOLED displays shrunk from 51% in 2018 to 19% in 2019 as rigid AMOLEDs starts to be adopted where PMOLED displays once were. To learn more about the PMOLED market and its future, see our PMOLED Market Report.

Visionox announced that it is supplying the highly-curved 2.07" 326 PPI 430 nits AMOLED display for Huami's next-generation Amazfit X smartwatch, which will be released in Q1 2020.

Huami, which is a subsidiary of Xiaomi, is enjoying great success with its wearable devices. In 2018 it has shipped 27.5 million smartwatches - surpassing even Apple. This could be an excellent design win for Visionox.

In September 2019 Xiaomi unveiled a new "concept" smartphone, the Mi Mix Alpha, which uses a foldable OLED screen wrapped around the phone. Xiaomi said this phone will be produced in small quantities (with a price tag of around $2,800) and indeed it is now displaying it in its shop in Hong Kong:

The AMOLED display, produced by Visionox, is 7.92" in size with a resolution of 2088x2250 (388 PPI).