OLED Smartphones - introduction and industry news - Page 64

Samsung announced today that the Gear VR (Innovator Edition) will arrive in the US next month. The Gear VR will cost $199 ($249 bundled with a Bluetooth gamepad). Of course you will also need a Galaxy Note 4 (with its 5.7" QHD Super AMOLED) to use this VR HMD.

Samsung's Gear VR is a Virtual Reality Headset (developed together with Oculus VR) that uses a Galaxy Note 4 for the screen, processor, sensors and audio.

Engadget posted a review of Samsung's Galaxy Note Edge - and all in all they are very happy with the device. They state that it is pretty much a Galaxy Note 4 - but more expensive and of course with the curved display - which still seems like an experiment in design.

Regarding the screen, Engadget says it looks great - and it's similar to the Note 4. DisplayMate also confirmed this a while back, SDC's plastic OLEDs offer pretty much the same performance as SDC's glass-based OLEDs. Some people like and adore the curve, it's certainly an attention grabber. Engadget did not find it to be very useful though and the review said that eventually he disabled most of the widgets on the edge. For left-handed users, the phone is not ideal a the curve is in the opposite direction.

EverDisplay Optronics (EDO) was established in October 2012 with an aim to become China's first AMOLED producer. I'm happy to announce that the company has now began to mass produce AMOLED panels. EDO is currently producing 5" 720p (293 PPI) panels for mobile phones. They already achieved a design win with a Chinese handset maker and the first mobile phone that use their panels is expected to launch by the end of 2014.

EverdDisplay is also developing 5.6" Full-HD panels, and these will enter mass production in February 2015. EDO's next display will be a 1.63" 320x320 AMOLED for wearables - expected for Q2 2015.

LG Display posted an interesting article explaining their plastic-based flexible OLED technologies and displays - showing how these displays are better than LCD displays in several aspects (mainly the fact that plastic OLEDs are thinner than LCDs and glass-based OLEDs). In addition, LG Display posted their flexible OLED roadmap:

As you can see, LG already produces flexible OLEDs for phones and wearable devices. In 2015-2016 the company sees flexible OLEDs being adopted in tablets and bendable phones. From 2017, LGD sees flexible OLEDs being used to produce foldable and rollable devices.

According to an Israeli reporter, LG Electronics is developing a mini-version of the curved G Flex phone. The reporter says he saw a prototype phone during a visit to LG's phone factory in Korea, and when he asked his host, he did not deny this. LG hasn't released a flexible OLED phone (or any OLED phone, for that matter) for over a year (The G Flex was announced in October 2013).

LG's G Flex was the first device to use LG Display's flexible plastic OLED display. The G Flex has a 6" 720p flexible OLED display that is curved from top to bottom (unlike Samsung's Galaxy Round which is curved from left to right). The G Flex used a curved battery produced by LG Chem.

AT&T announced that it will start accepting Galaxy Note Edge orders on November 7th. The Note Edge will carry a $100 premium over the Galaxy Note 4 - so it will cost $399.99 with a two-year contract. AT&T will also sell it unlocked for $945.99.

The Galaxy Note Edge is a Note 4 variant that includes a flexible Super AMOLED display that curves around the right edge. The "main" display is a 5.6" QHD (2560x1440), and the right-stripe adds 160 rows that display icons or notifications.

Samsung announced two new mid-range phones aimed towards the youth market, both with Super AMOLED displays. First up we have the Galaxy A5, which Samsung says is their slimmest phone ever at 6.7 mm. The A5 sports a 5" 720p Super AMOLED display, 13mp camera, 5mp front camera for selfie shots, 1.2Ghz CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage memory and a 2,300 mAh battery. As in several of Samsung's latest smartphones, it uses a stylish metal body.

The second phone is the Galaxy A3, the A5's smaller sibling - with a 4.5" qHD (960x540) display. It looks pretty similar, but it's actually thicker at 6.9 mm. The specifications are a little below the A5: a 8mp camera (same 5mp front camera), 1,900 mAh battery, 1.2Ghz quadcore CPU, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage memory.

In June 2012 we first heard about AIV-BEX's ambitious AMOLED project. Later in 2013 we posted more details about this 4.5-Gen Oxide-TFT AMOLED production fab project. A few months ago I heard that AIV-BEX abandoned the OLED project, but according to some new information this is not true, although they do face some delays to their original plan.

In 2013 AIV-BEX planned to start production in 2014, but now according to the OLED Association, this was delayed to Q4 2015. According to a private investor on a forum, the company assured him that the project is still running but is slower than expected.

Back in July, there was a report from Korea stating that Samsung Display's CEO wants to expand OLED sales into the Chinese market in a move to diversity and expand the company's OLED customer base. Following Samsung Electronics relatively weak smartphone sales, this is not surprising.

Now there are reports from Chinese media stating that SDC is indeed talking with Chinese smartphone brands for OLED supply deals. According to those reports, Huawei and OPPO are interested in those displays and we should expect AMOLED smartphones from those two companies soon.

Two weeks ago, Apple unveiled their latest iPhones, the 6 (4.7", 1334x750) and 6 Plus (5.5", 1920x1080) - both with new IPS LCD displays. The measurement experts at DisplayMate did their usual methodical testing on these new phones and compared these to the latest LCD and OLED displays.

Apple included several technical display enhancements in these new displays - like Photo aligned IPS, Dual Domain pixels, and Improved Polarizers. According to DisplayMate, these are indeed very good displays, and the iPhone 6 Plus is the best performing smartphone LCD display ever tested. The iPhone 6 has pretty much the same display, but the lower resolution means rescaled images do not look as good.