OLED Smartphones - introduction and industry news - Page 18

Samsung Display has recently announced two design wins for its smartphone LTPO AMOLED displays - the Oppo Find X3 series and the OnePlus 9 Pro. Both adopt the same 6.7-inch 1440x3216 120Hz HDR10+ (1,300 nits peak) LTPO AMOLED display.

Samsung also announced that in the past the company's priority was to improve the image quality and the design of its OLED displays. Moving forward, SDC will focus on lowering the power consumption of its OLED displays. SDC will do so by developing low-power materials and "optimizing power-efficient technologies".

Last month Huawei started shipping its second-generation foldable smartphone, the Mate X2, and the first review, from Android Authority is in. And the reviewer really likes the device - saying it may even be better than Samsung's own foldable smartphones.

The inner-folding 8-inch 90Hz 2480 x 2200 AMOLED is said to be beautiful, and it is completely flat when open - with a really minimal bezel that can barely be seen. According to the reviewer, that's a huge improvement over all other foldables they used. The phones feels very solid, in fact, and the hinge seems much more durable than before.

According to reports online, there's a global chip shortage, that is already effecting some industries - and is not threatening the supply of Samsung's smartphone AMOLED displays.

It seems as if high demand for chips due to the covid-19 pandemic, a water shortage in Taiwan and heavy snow in Texas all combined to create a shortage is chip supply. Samsung's Austin plant, which makes Qualcomm chips used in AMOLED drivers, has been halted since February 16th and this creates concern for Samsung's ability to supply enough AMOLED displays to satisfy demand.

According to Trendforce, smartphone brands will increase adoption of AMOLED displays in 2021, which will lead to a 39% market share for AMOLED displays in the total smartphone display market - up from 31% in 2019.

AMOLED displays are increasingly replacing high-end LTPS LCD displays in the high-end part of the smartphone market. The market share of lower-end a:Si LCD is quite stable.

Samsung Display announced that the company aims to lead the gaming display market, and it will supply more OLED displays for gaming smartphones, in addition to gaming laptops (as it does already). These displays will be branded as "OLED for gaming" displays.

Samsung Display reveals its AMOLED displays were adopted by Asus for its latest gaming smartphone (the ROG Phone 5) - a 6.78-inch 1080x2448 HDR10+ (1200 nits peak) 144Hz AMOLED display.

OLED compensation technology developer IGNIS Innovation launched an interesting new system that can be used to inspect and fix burn-in problems in Android smartphones.

The system, which IGNIS calls an Automated Optical Inspection System (AOIS) is a tabletop machine that you insert an Android smartphone into, and it identifies areas with image retention. Using software drivers, one can then compensate for these problems. The compensation is based on IGNIS proprietary MaxLife compensation technology.

UBI Research says that shipments of OLED displays reached 577.88 million in 2020, up 3.7% from 2019. Total OLED revenues in 2020 increased only 0.7% to $32.68 billion as average panel price was lower in 2020 (mostly in the smartphone market).

The main growth in the OLED industry in 2020 came from smartwatches and TVs markets. Smartphone and tablet display shipments actually decreased in 2020. In 2020, new market emerged - automotive displays, laptop displays and foldable devices.

DSCC says that foldable smartphone shipments will rise sharply starting in August 2021 - and total foldable OLED smartphone shipments in Q4 2021 will be higher than the whole period from Q1 2020 to Q2 2021 - combined.

There are several reasons for this high increase in projected shipments. First of all, Samsung is expected to release several new foldable smartphones in Q3 2021 - three models in fact, including an "aggressively priced" clamshell foldable.

Ireland-based OLED IP company Solas OLED announced that a jury in the US district court in Texas has found Samsung Display and Samsung Electronics liable to Solas for wilfully infringing two fundamental OLED patents (USPTO #7,446,338 and #9,256,311). The jury awarded solas with $62.7 million in damages.

Solas says that these patents are required for AMOLED to function - these patents were used in the OLED displays used in Samsung's Galaxy S and Galaxy Note smartphones.

Last month we learned that LG Electronics is considering the future of its Smartphone business - which means LG could end up selling, closing or downsizing its mobile unit.

LG is developing a rollable smartphone, which was reportedly going to ship in early 2021. The future of this exciting rollable OLED device is not clear. Yesterday a report in Korea's Yonhap News suggested that the project is cancelled, although LG Electronics later denied this report and says that the company did not make any decision on 'future phone products' - which of course doesn't mean the project could indeed be cancelled or put on hold in the future.