OLED Smartphones - introduction and industry news - Page 47

Android Authority performed some preliminary tests of LG V30's display, which uses LGD's flexible P-OLED panels. AA says that the first impressions are very positive, and LGD's mobile OLEDs are highly competitive with Samsung's latest Super AMOLED displays (AA compared the V30 to the Galaxy S8, although to be fair SDC has since improved its OLEDs).

LG's color temperature is quite higher compared to the OLED of the GS8 - 8500K vs the GS8 7500K. On manual brightness both phones are able to reach almost the same brightness (421 nits on the V30, 398 nits on the GS8), while on automotive mode the LG reaches 606 nits and the GS8 only 535 nits (DisplayMate says the GS8 should reach 1,020 nits - but AA could not reach this high brightness in these tests). AA reviewers say that the LG V30 is quite comparable to Samsung's display in terms of black levels and vibrant colors.

An interesting report in Business Korea discloses that the price competition between high-end LCD and rigid (glass-based) OLED displays is intensifying. Both LCD and OLED display makers are struggling to win orders from low-end and mid-range smartphone makers, and as a result prices are declining.

In 2016 several new LCD plants have started operations ,which resulted in a large increase in LTPS LCD capacity - and thus lower prices. BK states that a smartphone LCD is now around 5$ cheaper compared to an OLED, which puts pressure on SDC and other AMOLED producers to lower prices.

UBI Research estimates smartphone OLED display shipments reached 95.3 million units in Q2 2017, up 2.6% from last year (92.9 million Q2 2016) while TV panel shipments grew 165% to reach 370,000 units.

Compared to last quarter (Q1 2017), smartphone shipments grew 0.6%. Samsung Display is still the clear market leader - with a market share of 96.7%. OLED TV panel shipments increased 21.2% from Q1 2017, and UBI expects this market to continue growing gradually throughout 2017.

LG Display's first large flexible OLED Production line, the E5 line in Gumi was supposed to start producing panels in June 2017, but reports from Taiwan suggested that LG delayed the mass production to August (which caused LGD to lose a 3 million OLED supply deal with Xiaomi).

According to analysts from CLSA, the yields at the E5 line are still very low - at around 10%, and it will take LG quite some time to increase the yields enough to start mass production - yields will be at around 30% at year's end, still very low. The displays for upcoming LGD's V30 smartphone were supposed to come out of this line, but LGD has decided to produce these at the E2 4.5-Gen line which is not an efficient fab for smartphone panels.

DisplayMate posted a review of the new flexible Super AMOLED display used in Samsung's latest phone, the Galaxy Note 8. This is a 6.3" Quad HD+ (2960x1440) flexible edge-type display and DisplayMate says it improves on Samsung's previous OLED display (the one used in the Galaxy S8) and it declares that this is the best mobile display ever tested.

DisplayMate says that the new OLED display has several improvements compared to the previous generation display, and Samsung also included several new display features and functions in the phone. The major improvement is that the Note 8 is 22% brighter compared to the GS8 - it reaches a peak brightness of 1,200 nits - the brightest mobile phone ever.

China-based Sigmaintell Consulting says that shipments of AMOLED-based smartphones slid 13.8% in China in the first half of 2017. A total of 37.4 million such phones were shipped, with the top two vendors being Oppo (13.8 million units) and Vivo (13 million units) accounting for 71% of the market.

Sigmaintell says that shipments fell compared to 2016 because some vendors (including Oppo) opted for in-cell LCD displays over OLED displays.

According to ETNews, Samsung aims to expand the adoption of its Y-OCTA touch technology which will be used in both versions of its Galaxy S9 (5.77" and 7.22"). In the Galaxy S8, only the 5.77" version uses Y-OCTA, the larger variant uses Samsung's film-type touch.

Y-OCTA (which apparently stands for Youm On-Cell Touch AMOLED) describes Samsung's On-Cell flexible (hence Youm) AMOLED touch technology. The touch sensor in Y-OCTA displays is deposited directly on the encapsulation (TFE) layer which is better than the add-on (or film-type) touch used in older flexible AMOLEDs generations. The optical features are better as the touch layer is below a polarizer and enables the use of a non-ITO grid, there's no need for a support film (see image above) and the number of layers is lower. Samsung estimates that Y-OCTA also cuts production costs by around 30%.

LG Electronics announced that its next flagship smartphone will be the first phone to adopt LG Display's plastic OLED FullVision display. This will be the first LG phone to use an AMOLED display since the G Flex 2 in 2015, and this is the first step in LG's plan to extend its OLED leadership from TVs to smartphones.

The new phone (which will be the V30) will have 6" QHD+ (1440 x 2880) display that is similar in size to the display used in the V20 - but the phone's body will be smaller as the upper and lower bezels were reduced by 20% and 50% compared to the V20. LG further discloses that the new display will achieve a color gamut of 148% sRGB 1 color space and 109% of DCI-P3. The edges of the display will be curved following Samsung's popular edge-type phone design.

Samsung Electronics reported a record-breaking quarter, with revenues reaching 61 trillion Won ($54 billion USD) and an operating profit of 14 trillion Won (about $12.6 billion USD). The company's enjoyed a very strong chip and component business, which offset a slight decline in mobile devices revenues.

Samsung Display posted an operating profit of 1.7 trillion Won ($1.5 billion) from revenues of 7.7 trillion Won ($6.8 billion). SDC's OLED business is strong and the company forecasts increased sales of flexible AMOLED displays as more smartphone makers are adopting flexible OLEDs.

DSCC expects the OLED market to rapidly grow in the near future, as AMOLED production capacity will increase at a CAGR of 41% from 2016 (5.3 million square meters) to 2021 (29.4 million square meters). OLED revenues will reach $21 billion in 2017 (a rise of 46% compared to 2016) and will reach $46 billion in 2021.

Smartphones are still the largest OLED application by far - with a 86% market share (revenues) in 2017 and 81% in 2021. The second largest application by revenues are OLED TVs, and other applications follow with a small market share - but one that will increase as supply looses in the future. If we look at shipments, then smartphones acount for 94% of OLED shipments, and the 2nd and 3rd applications are VR headsets and smart watches. OLED TV shipments will reach 6.5 million in 2021 (rising at a CAGR of 49% from 2016 to 2021).