OLED Smartphones - introduction and industry news - Page 66

Samsung just sent press invitation to their Unpacked 2014 Episode 2 event, which will take place on September 3rd. It's highly likely that the Galaxy Note 4 will be announced during the event (they even say "note the date").

As always before a major Samsung launch, we heard several reports (rumors?) regarding this device. Last month SamMobile claimed to have exclusive info detailing a QHD (2560x1440) AMOLED panel. On the same day, the Korea Times reported that Samsung will actually unveil two Note 4 variants - on with a regular flat display, and another with a curved one. A month earlier, a senior VP at Samsung Electronics said that the Note 4 will have a "new form factor".

A few days ago Samsung released their financial results for Q2 2014. While it wasn't a good quarter for Samsung, OLED increasing slightly driven by new high-end smartphones, and SDC is increasing AMOLED sales to mid-range phones. During the company's conference call, some more interesting information was revealed.

Samsung's head of IR says that while OLED sales improved compared to the previous quarter, the improvement was less than Samsung's expectation. Samsung actually expects that it will be challenging to improve OLED profits because of SDC's main customers (mostly Samsung Electronics itself, actually) "continuous reduction of panel inventory and product mix change to increase offerings of mid-end products". Supplying to lower-range products may mean lower margins for SDC.

Last month Oculus started to ship their second-gen (DK2) development kits - for over 40,000 pre-order customers. Those Gen-2 devices switched the 7" LCD used in the first-generation headsets to newer AMOLED panels. Back when they unveiled the DK2, Oculus explained that they wanted a low persistence display, as it makes an incredible difference. Oculus said that their OLED runs much faster than any other OLED panel on the market.

It was always assumed the panel maker was SDC (they even announced a co-development effort later on), but the actual display was unknown. Today iFixit posted a teardown of the DK2, and it turns out that the display is the same 5.7" FHD Super AMOLED panel used in the Galaxy Note 3 (you can see it in the lower-left part of the image above). In fact, Oculus uses the exact module, with the touch-controller in tact and the camera holes and all.

Samsung released their financial results - and it was not a good quarter for the Korean company. While they earned $6.1 billion, both mobile phone and tablet sales were weaker than expected (Samsung shipped only 8 million tablets, compared to 13 million in the previous quarter).

Samsung Display's OLED earning were actually good - increasing slightly driven by new high-end smartphones. SDC is increasing AMOLED sales to mid-range phones.

OLEDNet posted an interesting article saying that Gionee's upcoming GN9005 ultra-slim smartphone uses a 4.8" HD AMOLED Panel (306 PPI) made by AU Optronics. OLEDNet says that the fact that this panel is called "AMOLED" and not "Super AMOLED" like SDC's panels is a hint, and in addition, it is a low-performance panel compared to the SDC-made 5" FHD 441 PPI panel Gionee used in their previous phone (the Elife S5.5).

I'm not sure I'm convinced - this panel could still be made by SDC, even if it does not specifically use the Super AMOLED brand (this is up to Gionee I believe to decide). But OLEDNet says that according to their information, AUO started supplying AMOLED Panels to a Chinese maker last month.

DisplaySearch says that manufacturing costs for small-sized AMOLEDs are currently about 10-20% higher than comparable LCDs. A 5" Full-HD AMOLED for example, costs 16% more than a comparable LCD one.

But improvement in production yields will lower the gap - and in fact DisplaySearch sees OLEDs becoming cheaper than LCDs within two years, when AMOLED production yields reach 90%. DisplaySearch also says sees OLED materials cost reductions, which will also reduce prices further.

EverDisplay Optronics was established in October 2012 in Shanghai, China with plans to become China's first AMOLED producer. Everdisplay is constructing a Gen-4.5 AMOLED fab. Those AMOLEDs will be deposited on an LTPS backplane.

The company's marketing team were kind enough to answer a few questions I had. This is a very short interview (they do not seem like the talkative types) - but this is one company that anyone interested in OLEDs should keep an eye on in the near future. They also sent me the photo you see below, showing their latest HD (720p) AMOLED prototypes. From left to right: 5-inch (293 PPI), 5.5-inch (267 PPI), 6-inch (244 PPI).

In January 2014, SDC confirmed that it is developing a QHD (2560x1440) AMOLED panel. Today the company announced a new phone for the Korean market, the Galaxy S5 LTE-A which sports this new 5.1" QHD panel. This panel reaches a very high PPI (577) which makes it the world's highest density AMOLED, and probably the highest density mobile display (beating LG's G3 display which is a 5.5" QHD LCD, 538 PPI).

We don't know much about this display, but it probably uses some kind of Pentile display (or Diamond Pixel like the GS5). While this phone will probably be exclusive for Korea (it will be released via SK Telecom later this summer), hopefully Samsung will also release a similar upgraded GS5 phone with a QHD panel worldwide. It's also likely that the Note 4 will sport a QHD panel too. Samsung, by the way, does not plan to stop QHD. The company is actually developing a UHD mobile display - that will reach 870 PPI (!).

A few hours ago I posted about a report from SamMobile, saying that the Galaxy Note 4 will sport a QHD AMOLED display. I promised that we're gonna see more rumors regarding this phone, but I didn't think it was so quick.

Samsung Galaxy Round

The Korea Times reports that Samsung will unveil their new Phablet at the IFA 2014 conference (September 5). They will actual show two Note 4 variants - one with a regular display, and another with a curved one.

SamMobile says they got some exclusive info on the upcoming Galaxy Note 4. The display will be an AMOLED panel - with a QHD (2560x1440) resolution. They do not know the display size. The rest of the spec, according to SamMobile, is a Sony 16MP camera module, and the same 2 mp front camera like in the GS5.

Galaxy Note 3

The Note 3, released in September 2013, has a 5.7" Full-HD Super AMOLED display (386 PPI, PenTile), a 2.3 Quad-Core CPU (or a 1.9Ghz octa-core in some markets), 3 GB of RAM, 32/64GB of storage and a a 13 MP camera. It's likely that Note 4 will have a similarly sized (or a bit larger) display.