OLED Smartphones - introduction and industry news - Page 13

During the Mobile World Congress, many smartphones were announced (and some already released) that use AMOLED displays. Here's the current list of phones we added to the OLED phone database, although we're sure more phones will surface soon:

• Oppo Find X5 / X5 Lite / X5 Pro
• TCL 30/ 30+
• Xiaomi Poco M4 Pro / Poco X4 Pro
• ZTE Nubia Z40 Pro
• Honor Magic4 / Magic4 Pro
• Lenovo Legion Y90
• Oppo Reno7 Z 5G
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11E Pro

Some of these phones use very advanced displays, for example the Honor Magic4 with its 6.81" 120Hz 1,000 nits 1224x2664 LTPO AMOLED display and the Lenovo Legion Y90 Y90 with a 6.92" 144Hz 1,300 nits 1080x2460 AMOLED.

UBI Research estimates that shipments of small-sizes (under 10-inch) AMOLED displays reached 746 million in 2021, up 34.4% from 2020 (555 million units). UBI says the market was driven by increased Apple iPhone sales and increased adoption of foldable OLED panels.

In terms of revenues, the market increased by 43.9% from $26.5 billion in 2020 to $38.1 billion in 2021.

DSCC estimates that just over 10 million foldable OLED displays shipped in 2022, and the market is set to grow to 86 million units by 2026 (54% CAGR).

DSCC says that foldable smartphone revenues rose 342% in 2021, and have reached $5.8 billion. The most popular foldable smartphone was the Galaxy Z Flip 3 (51% market share in 2021), followed by the Galaxy Z Fold 3 (26% market share) and the Huawei Mate X2 (6% market share).

Towards the end of 2021, it was reported that Visionox has finalized its LTPO R&D project and is ready to start producing LTPO OLED displays. The company now officially launched its first LTPO AMOLED dipslay, that can offer a dynamic refresh rate, from 1Hz to 120Hz. Visionox expects the first phones to adopt these new displays to be released soon.

The new LTPO AMOLED displays are produced at Visionox's Hefei 6-Gen flexible AMOLED line. This is the first LTPO OLED displays produced in China (previously only Samsung and LG produced such advanced panels).

BOE demonstrated new foldable OLED prototypes, which it calls the f-OLED N-shaped folding display. The new displays by BOE can be folded both inwardly and outwardly, which allows BOE to present a unique form factor:

BOE's new display is 12.3" in size, and when full folded (two folds) it turns into a 5.6-inch form-factor device. BOE developed a novel hinge system that allows for sliding compensation which improves the strength of the display module. BOE tested the new display for up to 200,000 inward folding cycles and 100,000 outward folding cycles.

According to reports from Korea, Samsung decided to use the same OLED material stack (the so-called M11 stack) in its Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone (the M11 was used in the S21 Ultra phone). The lower-end Galaxy S21 still uses the M10 stack, same as in the S20.

The lower-end model did get an update - the S22 Plus has been upgraded to the M11 stack (the S21 Plus used the M10 stack).

IDC estimates that 7.1 million foldable smartphones shipped in 2021, an increase of 264% over 2020 (1.9 million units). IDC estimates that the market will grow to 27.6 million units by 2025 (a CAGR of 69.9%).

Most of the growth in 2021 came from Samsung's Galaxy Flip3 which was a success in the market thanks to its compact size and price tag ($999).

According to ETNews, BOE reduced its AMOLED production for Apple to about 2-3 months in February and March, down from around 9-10 million units it originally planned to produced, as the company failed to secure enough driver ICs.

ETNews says that LX Semicon (previously Silicon Works) cannot supply BOE with enough driver chips. Most of the company's chips will be supplied to LG's OLED panels.

Samsung launched a new range of mobile devices, most of which feature AMOLED displays. The new smartphone range starts with the Galaxy S22 which sports a 6.1" 120Hz 1300 nits 1080x2340 Dynamic AMOLED 2X, and the Galaxy S22+ which offers similar specifications but with a larger 6.6" AMOLED which is also brighter at 1,750 nits.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra features a 6.8" 120Hz 1750-nits 1440x3080 Dynamic AMOLED 2X, and also stronger specifications, including up to 1TB of storage, 12GB of RAM, a quad camera setup with a main 108MP sensor and an S Pen stylus.

Omdia says that demand for AMOLED displays increased 52% from 2020, to reach 14.2 million square meters. The main drivers of this growth were higher OLED TV and smartphones sales.

Omdia expects the OLED market to continue its strong growth, even though growth will be slower in the future. The demand for AMOLED display area will grow by CAGR of 11.6% from 2021 to 2028, to reach 30.7 million square meters.