OLED Smartphones - introduction and industry news - Page 46

Both LG (the V30) and Google (Pixel 2 XL) recently introduced smartphones that use LG's new pOLED smartphone displays, both with the same display - a 6" 1440x2880 (537 PPI).

An early pre-production review of LG's V30 claimed that the display suffer from serious quality issues, and now reviews of commercially-sold units confirm the display problems.

Last month we reported that BOE aims to start producing flexible OLEDs at its new 6-Gen B7 fab in Chengdu by the end of October 2017. A new report from Korea's ETNews sheds some more light about BOE's plans.

The annual capacity of the B7 line, when complete, will be about 90 million smartphone sized displays (45,000 monthly 6-Gen substrates). According to ETNews, BOE aims to produce 5.5" flexible OLEDs at first, and then add a 5.99" display in November. BOE's initial capacity will be very low - around 10,000 panels per month.

Google announced its 2nd-generation own-brand smartphones, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. The Pixel 2, produced by HTC, sports a 5-inch FHD (441 PPI) AMOLED display (made by SDC), a Snapdragon 835 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64/128 GB of storage and a 12 MP camera.

The Pixel 2 XL, manufactured by LG, has similar features, but with a larger 6" QHD+ (537 PPI) pOLED display - made by LGD.

Samsung has been developing foldable display technologies for many years, and it seems that a foldable phone/tablet is always just around the corner. Samsung is getting closer to a commercial release, though, and earlier this month Samsung's Mobile Business group President says that it hopes to have a foldable phone in the market in 2018.

One of the interesting questions is what kind of device will Samsung launch? In 2016 we heard that Samsung is developing two basic device types - a phone that turns into a tablet and a phone that turns into a smartwatch. The focus currently seems to be on a phone/tablet device. But will it be out-foldable or in-foldable?

Apple introduced its first OLED iPhone, the iPhone X with a 5.8" 1125x2436 (458 PPI) flexible Super AMOLED display, and analysts were expecting that Apple will extend the adoption of OLEDs to both its smaller and larger iPhones next year.

Reports from Korea, however, now suggest that Apple decided that in 2018 its smaller iPhone (at 5.28-inch) will use an LCD, and not an OLED. Apple will use an OLED in two models in 2018 - one at 5.8-inch and one at 6.46-inch.

A few days ago we reported that the four largest smartphone makers in China (Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi) have all confirmed plans to adopt LGD's flexible OLEDs starting in 2018. A new report from Business Korea now suggests that Huawei and LGD are set to sign a strategic long-term OLED supply agreement.

According to the report Huawei is the largest customer for mobile OLED displays in China, and the company wants to sign a long-term supply contract with LGD. The agreement will call for a relatively small (tens of thousands, it seems) supply of OLEDs in 2018, so most of Huawei's OLEDs orders in 2018 will remain with Samsung Display as is the situation today. Huawei's upcoming Mate 10 flagship phone will adopt SDC's glass-based AMOLEDs.

LG Display is ramping up its flexible OLED production capacity, starting with the E5 line in Gumi. This production line was already supposed to start producing a few months ago, but LGD still faces production issues (which reportedly caused LGD to lose a 3 million OLED supply deal with Xiaomi).

Oppo R11 Plus

It is likely that LGD will begin mass production at the beginning of 2018, and Business Korea now reports that the four largest smartphone makers in China (Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi) have all confirmed plans to adopt LG's flexible OLEDs in 2018. According to the report, LGD will commit 20%-30% of its flexible OLED capacity in 2018 (or about 10-15 million panels) to Chinese phone makers.

Samsung has been developing foldable display technologies for many years, and it seems that a foldable phone/tablet is always just around the corner. At a recent press event, Samsung Electronics' Mobile Business group President Koh Dong-Jin updated on the company's foldable smartphone plans.

Foldable OLED concept (2013)

According to Mr. Dong-Jin, Samsung Electronics hopes to release a phone with a bendable display in 2018. However Samsung still faces some technical challenges to overcome so this is still not a hard set target.

Yesterday Apple announced its new iPhone lineup which includes the flagship iPhone X that, as expected, features a 5.8" 1125x2436 (458 PPI) flexible Super AMOLED display that covers almost the entire front of the phone. Apple's first OLED iPhone will ship in November starting at $999.

Some reports suggest that SDC is only able to supply a limited number of displays to Apple which will severely limit iPhone X shipments.

A couple of days ago we reported that Android Authority reviewed LG V30's display, which uses LGD's flexible pOLED panels, with very positive results - saying that LGD's mobile OLEDs are highly competitive with Samsung's latest Super AMOLED displays.

Ars Technica also posted an early review of a pre-production V30 device, but its conclusions are very different. While the display sounds great on paper, Ars Technica says (and it's got photos to prove) that in a dark room the display suffers from a grainy image and horizontal banding. The light level is also woefully uneven, with hotspots blazing out of the left and right corners.