OLED Smartphones - introduction and industry news - Page 74

Just minutes after posting that LGD announced it will start mass producing flexible OLEDs, here comes Samsung with their own announcement. It turns our that Samsung Display is already mass producing 5.7" flexible OLEDs and supplying them to Samsung Electronics. Samsung will release the first flexible OLED phone (probably a Galaxy Note 3 Special-Edition) "within days".

Samsung's 5.7" panel offers Full-HD resolution and it is only 0.12 mm thin. It weighs 5.2 grams and has a curvature radius is 400 mm. So while LG's flexible display is larger at 6", it is much thicker (more than three times thicker at 0.44 mm).

Several reports from Korea suggests that LG Electronics is getting ready to announce their first phone that uses a flexible plastic-based curved OLED panel. Both reports say the new phone will sport a large 6" panel and it will be announced soon - within days or in November at the latest.

One thing the two sources do not agree upon is the name. CNet says it will be called the G Flex while ZDnet Korea claims it will be called the LG G Z or Z1. CNet says that they obtained the sketch shown above the shows how the new phone will look like.

DisplayBank IHS says that global OLED shipments reached 53 million units in Q2 2013 (that is equivalent to 341,000 m²). OLED shipments grew 41.2% compared to the same period last year, and 16.5% compared to the past quarter (Q1 2013).

The most popular OLED panel is the 4.99" FHD one used in the GS4. Not only is SDC producing more displays, but the average display size is constantly increasing, too.

DisplayMate, the display testing, measurement and calibration experts just got their hands on a pre-release Galaxy Note 3 production unit, with its 5.7" Full-HD Super AMOLED display (386 PPI, PenTile). They put the unit to extensive testing (and also compared it to the Note 2). The conclusion? This is the best performing OLED display ever and it beats LCDs across the board!

The most notable advancement in this new panel is the high brightness. It can achieve 660 cd/m² in high ambient light. It's not just 55% brighter than the Note 2, it's actually the brightest display ever tested at DisplayMate. A very notable achievement for Samsung's OLEDs, which were lagging behind LCDs in brightness.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear are now both shipping in the UK. An unlocked Galaxy Note 3 costs £659 (about $1,050) and you can also buy it from almost all major carriers. The Gear costs £299 ($480, but you get a £100 discount if you buy both). Both devices are not shipping in the US yet, but are available for pre-order.

The Galaxy Note 3 features a 5.7" Full-HD Super AMOLED display (386 PPI), a 2.3 Quad-Core CPU (or a 1.9 Ghz 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. It is smaller and lighter than the Note 2.

Update: Apparently two Samsung officials confirmed those reports. First up was mobile strategic marketing chief, D.J. Lee that said that a new phone with a curved display will be introduced in South Korea in October. Park Sang-jin, Samsung SDI's CEO told reporters that the new device will use a plastic OLED display.

Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 3 earlier this month, with a 5.7" Full-HD Super AMOLED display (386 PPI). Before this launched we heard many reports that the Note 3 will be the first phone to sport a plastic-based unbreakable flexible YOUM display. Some of these reports came from credited sources such as the OLED Association.

One of the more interesting reports suggested that Samsung is actually preparing several Note 3 variants, each with a different display. A regular AMOLED will be the most popular one, but Samsung may use an LCD in some variants (this is probably because AMOLED supply may be very tight).

US Carrier T-Mobile announced they are accepting pre-orders for the Galaxy Note 3. The new "phablet" costs $199 (with a 2-year plan) and will be available on October 2nd - together with the $299 Galaxy Gear. Meanwhile AT&T is now accepting pre-orders for the Galaxy Gear. 

The Galaxy Note 3 sports a 5.7" Full-HD Super AMOLED display (386 PPI), a 2.3 Quad-Core CPU (or a 1.9 Ghz 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. Samsung managed to pack all this in a phone that is smaller and lighter than the Note 2.

So the IFA 2013 event is now over - and there has been a lot of interesting OLED TVs on display, so I thought I'd post a short summary post. The most impressive OLED TV was probably LG's 77" curved UHD (4K) WRGB one. I don't think this huge OLED panel will enter production soon, but it was still an impressive feat and it's the world's largest OLED panel ever. LG also showed their new flat-panel Gallery OLED TV.

LG 77-inch curved OLED TV prototype

Samsung also unveiled 4K OLEDs - one curved and one flat. These were smaller at 55", and Samsung says this is just a "proof of concept". Samsung had curved LCDs on display as well, 55" and 65" in size and both offering 4K resolution. Sony also unveiled a curved LCD: the S990A curved LED-backlit LCD. Sony's panel is 65" in size and only offers Full-HD, but it is closer to market (they are accepting pre-orders now for $4,000) and it features the color-enhancing Triluminos display technology (QDVision's Quantum-Dot films).

Apple introduced two new iPhone smartphones: the high end 5s and the "colorful" 5C. Both phones use the same display used in the iPhone5: a 4" 1136x640 (326 ppi) Retina LCD display.

The new iPhone 5s sports a 64-bit A7 CPU, the new M7 chip (monitoring motion data in real-time), LTE, a new image sensor 15% larger than before and a 170-micron-thick fingerprint sensor built into the Home button. The 5C is a plastic polycarbonate colorful phone that basically has the same hardware as the iPhone 5.

Motorola says they now assemble over 400,000 Moto X phones each month. The Moto X's display is a 4.7" 720p (316 ppi) AMOLED panel made by Samsung.

While these numbers aren't very high compared to Samsung's own sales (for example they made about 10 million GS4 phones a month when they launched) it is still good news for Motorola and their US factory (which is somewhat depressing still if you check the image above).