OLED Smartphones - introduction and industry news - Page 71

Samsung announced today that they shipped over 10 million Note 3 smartphones (or phablets, really). It took them a little over 2 months as the Note 3 was launched on September 25. Before they launched the phone, Samsung said that they shipped over 38 million Galaxy Note and Note 2 smartphones since launching the original Galaxy Note in 2011 and they quickly reached their target of 10 million Note 3 sales.

The Galaxy Note 3 has a 5.7" Full-HD Super AMOLED display (386 PPI). DisplayMate says that this is the best OLED display ever, and in fact it outperforms the best LCDs across the board. The Note 3 also has a 2.3 Quad-Core CPU (or a 1.9Ghz octa-core in some markets), 3 GB of RAM, 32/64GB of storage, a 13 MP camera (will be capable of 4K videos in some markets) and Android 4.3.

LG announced that the G Flex smartphone will launch in Hong Kong next week - on December 13th. The phone will also launch in Singapore and Thailand in the following weeks. It will arrive in Europe in early 2014.

We also know that LG aims to bring the flexible OLED phone to the US, but we don't know when yet.

LG sees a bright future for flexible displays. In fact the company predicts that flexible smartphones will take-up 40% of the smartphone market in 2018. Samsung thinks the same, and they are basing their numbers on DisplaySearch - which means that LG is also probably actually quoting the same source.

LG Electronic's mobile product planning chief, Dr Ramchan Woo, says that "we are bored of flat" and that a flexible device is much more than just a flexible display. For example one of the key technologies in the G Flex is the flexible Stack & Folding battery made by LG Chem (here's a photo of the battery). Another key technology is the thin cover glass - and so we learn that this phone, similarly to Samsung's Galaxy Round also includes a cover glass, which explains why it is not truly "unbreakable".

Korean news site ETNews reports that Samsung plans to release two main models of its upcoming Galaxy S5 flagship phone - a standard plastic-bodied flat phone and a premium one that will sport a flexible OLED and a metal case. It'll be interested to see whether Samsung simply curved the premium S5 (like the Galaxy Round) or adopt a more radical design (wrap-around display or even a foldable one, although frankly these are only expected in 2015).

YOUM prototype phone, CES 2013

ETNews reports that initial production will begin in January 2014, and mass production will begin in February. This was also the case with the Galaxy S4 (which was announced on March 15 2013). It's unlikely that Samsung will have enough flexible OLED capacity to supply such a flagship phone so it makes sense they will only adopt it in a premium model. This is exactly what Samsung did with the flat Galaxy Note 3 and the curved Galaxy Round.

LG's G Flex is the first phone that uses LG Display's flexible plastic OLED display - a 6" 720p display that is curved from top to bottom. The G Flex is currently only available in Korea. You can wait till LG brings it to the US, but you can also buy it now on Amazon.com - unlocked for $1,150 (that's the Korean model).

The G Flex has a 2.3Ghz Snapdragon S800 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal memory, a 13MP camera, NFC, Android 4.2.2 and a 3500mAh non-removable battery (LG Chem's curved battery). The G Flex has two rear-mounted buttons and a "self-healing" back (that will heal scratches quickly).

According to Reuters, Samsung says they have shipped over 800,000 Galaxy Gear smartwatches since September. This numbers are probably shipment to retailers and not actual sales. In addition, most Gear watches are sold bundled to Galaxy Note 3 phones (some operators offer them free of charge if you join a certain plan). In any case, Samsung believes the Gear is now the "most sold wearable watch available in the marketplace".

According to Business Korea, Samsung sold less than 50,000 Gear watches in Korea which is far below their initial industry expectations. The Galaxy Gear, Samsung's first smartwatch, features a 1.63" 320x320 (275 PPI) Super AMOLED display, a 1.9 mp camera (720p videos), 800Mhz processor, 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, Bluetooth 4, and a 315 mAh non-removeable battery.

LG's G Flex phone is now shipping in Korea, and besides the flexible curved OLED display, it also uses a curved battery, developed and produced by LG Chem. The non-removable battery's capacity is 3500mAh. Here's a photo that shows the new battery next to a regular LG mobile phone battery:

LG Chem developed (and patented) a technology which they call Stack & Folding which reduces physical stress when realizing the curved design of battery packs. LG Chem started producing curved batteries this month .

LG's first flexible OLED phone, the G Flex, is already shipping in Korea, and we know that Samsung wants to bring it to the US, Japan and Europe. The FCC published new filing documents that discuss the G Flex (model number D959). This usually means that we should expect this phone to launch soon in the US, for both AT&T and T-Mobile.

The G Flex has a 6" 720p RGB flexible OLED display made by LG Display that is curved from top to bottom (unlike Samsung's Galaxy Round which is curved from left to right). Other features include a 2.3Ghz Snapdragon S800 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal memory, a 13MP camera, NFC, Android 4.2.2 and a 3500mAh non-removable battery (LG Chem's curved battery). The G Flex has two rear-mounted buttons and a "self-healing" back (that will heal scratches quickly).

According to new rumors, Samsung plans to release a smartphone in 2014 that will feature a three-sided display. This is a YOUM OLED display that wraps around the edges, probably similar to the prototypes the company showed at CES 2013:

YOUM phone prototype, CES 2013

According to the rumors, the phone will be released in 2014 (probably the second half of the year). Samsung hasn't decided yet whether this will be a Galaxy Note phone, or a Galaxy S one, or an altogether new class of phones.

Taiwan has a large display industry, but in recent years it seems that it is lagging behind Korea, Japan and China in AMOLED technologies. We asked a local industry expert to check out the three main Taiwanese AMOLED companies (AUO, Innolux and RiTDisplay), and now we post on his updates.

AUO

As we reported already, AUO started producing AMOLEDs in their 4.5-Gen fab in Singapore after years of delays. According to our source, AUO is actually only producing samples. Those 5" 720p (295 ppi) panel samples have been been submitted to a company based in China. Earlier reports suggested AUO is going to supply HTC and Sony but it appears these two companies will keep using LCDs for now.