QD-OLED - Page 3

According to reports, Kateeva's QD-OLED printing project saga is not over. Samsung Display tested the company's latest printers, but these failed the tests and Samsung Display will not but these printers. SDC planned to replace the currently-used Semes' printers, which also suffer from low performance.

Samsung Display is also not committed yet to expand its QD-OLED production lines, which means that in any case it does not need to buy new printers for production expansion. Earlier reports suggested that SDC wanted to upgrade it current capability for higher density (to reach 8K TV printing), so this may be the reason behind the testing of Kateeva's new printers.

Accoridng to Twitter (X) user Revegnus, the following is a leaked Apple roadmap, detailing the company's plans for OLED laptops, tablets and monitors:

As many already estimate, Apple will release the first OLED tablets next year, the iPad Pro 11" and 13". The next stage will only arrive in 2026, when Apple will ship a foldable 20.3" tablet, and two OLED laptops (MacBook Pro 14.2" and 16.2").

Value Electronics hosted their annual TV shootout, checking several high-end TVs to see which model provides the best images. The TVs were professionally calibrated, and tested one next to the other. In total, Value Electronics' shootout featured 6 65" 4K TVs - 3 OLEDs and 3 MiniLED LCD. IN the 8K shootout, there were 3 TVs, from Samsung, Sony and LG. As in previous years, OLED TVs were crowned the "King of TVs", in both the 4K and 8K categories.

For the 4K TV shootout, the best TV in the shootout was Sony's A95L QD-OLED TV. The runner-ups were Samsung's S95C (another QD-OLED TV) and LG's G3 OLED (with an LGD WOLED Panel). The 8K shootout's winner was LG's Z2 WOLED TV.

Samsung Display demonstrated many OLED technologies at Display Week 2023, which we'll detail below. It seems that the main new technology was the Sensor OLED Display, which is an OLED with an embedded sensor that can perform fingerprint sensing in addition to blood pressure, heart rate sensing and stress level sensing (all from reading the finger), which the company says is the first such display in the world.

The Sensor OLED Display embeds light-sensing organic photodiodes (OPDs) inside the display itself, which allows it to perform the sensing functions all over the display. Samsung explains that as OLED light is reflected differently depending on the contraction and relaxation of the blood vessels inside the finger, the OPD senses the light when it returns to the panel, and converts it into health information.

LG Display has been negotiating a WOLED TV panel supply agreement with Samsung Electronics for a long time, and last year the company were close to an agreement, but discussions were halted in July 2022, and Samsung continued to launch its QD-OLED TV range. Last month it was reported that the two Korean companies are in talks again, and now Reuters says that LG and Samsung finally officially signed the supply agreement.

According to Reuters, LGD will start supplying panels to Samsung as early as this quarter (i.e. by the end of June 2023). Samsung agreed to order 2 million WOLED TV panels from LG in 2024, and this will grow to 3 million in 2025 and 5 million in 2026. The first panels will be 77-inch and 83-inch in size, but LG is likely to also supply smaller panels to Samsung. 

Omdia released its latest IT OLED display forecasts, with some interesting projections. 

The company sees very nice growth ahead for OLED displays in the IT market, with shipments rising from around 9.7 million units in 2022 to over 70 million units in 2028. Most of the growth will come from adoption in laptops, but tablet adoption will also increase sharply.

Review web site Rtings.com has performed an extensive accelerated longevity test for over three months, testing the latest QD-OLED and WOLED TVs.y 

Rtings reports that both QD-OLED displays (Samsung S95B OLED and the Sony A95K) showed signs of image retention, and it seems in general that the QD-OLED displays suffer from worse problems compared to LG's WOLED. Some of Sony's WOLED TVs also showed signs of image retention.

Last month Samsung announced its S95C QD-OLED TV, and now the company starts accepting orders for its 77" model - for $4,500. The TVs will ship on March 6.

The S95C offers a 4K resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, Tizen 7 OS, Dolby Atmos, Gaming Hub and an external connector box (One Connect). The peak brightness is "over" 2,000 nits. It will be available in 55", 65" and 77".

Samsung Electronics reported its financial results for Q4 2022, with revenues of $57.3 billion, and an operating profit of $3.5 billion.

Samsung says that the "business environment deteriorated significantly in the fourth quarter due to weak demand amid a global economic slowdown". SDC's mobile AMOLED panel business earning declined, as demand for smartphones fell, but its large-area panel business seen a smaller loss as it is increasing sales of QD-OLED panels.