Samsung Display announced that its Galaxy S21 Ultra is the first device to adopt its updated M11 OLED material stack that uses new materials to increase the efficiency by 16%. Samsung now announced that its updated OLEDs has received the Sunlight Visibility verification from Underwriters Laboratories (UL).

UL’s test showed that the OLED panel scored 73% in DCI-P3 ambient color gamut and has peak brightness of 1,500 nits (compared to 1,300 nits achieved by Samsung's previous M10 OLED stack). Samsung Display says that its own internal testing show that color gamut in bright environment dropped from 99% to 73% , compared to a drop from 78% to 30% in competing LCD displays.

Last month Samsung Display announced that it has designed a new OLED stack (its M11 stack) that is 16% more efficient compared to its currently OLED stack. The first phone to adopt the new OLED materials will be the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

Anandtech posted an interesting and what seems to be comprehensive review of the Galaxy S21 Ultra display, comparing it to Samsung's previous generation panels. As you can see in the chart above, the results show that the new OLED stack is actually 26% to 31% more efficient when showing a full white screen. The brighter the display, the more efficient the new stack is compared to SDC's previous M10 OLED stack.

In August 2019 China-based Tianma announced plans for a 6-Gen flexible AMOLED line in Xiamen, China. Total investment in the new fab is estimated at $6.8 billion USD and the monthly capacity will be 48,000 6-Gen substrates. The company's initial plan was to start production at the new fab was to begin in February 2022.

According to a new report from China, Tianma finished the construction of the main building of the new fab, 50 days ahead of schedule.

AMOLED producer China-based EverDisplay (EDO) has become a public company and it is now listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Star Market. The company also released its financial results for the past few years.

The company increased its sales in recent years, rising from 600 million Yuan in 2017 to 800 million in 2018, 1.5 billion in 2019 and 900 million in H1 2020. EDO still suffers from losses, though, and in the first half of 2020 a net loss of 500 million Yuan.

China-based OLED maker Visionox reported good preliminary financial results for 2020, with increased sales and improved revenues and profits. The company expects its net profit to be around 141-210 million Yuan ($21-31 million USD), which will represent an increase of 120-227% over 2019.

The company says that its ability to innovate OLED technologies (specially the world's first OLED with an under-the-screen camera and the world's first 144Hz refresh rate OLED) enabled the company to increase its customer base and in 2020 it has added OPPO and Motorola as customers.

Samsung Display confirmed that the company is developing rollable OLED displays, and that it will start mass producing such displays later in 2021. It is likely that the first customer for these displays will be Samsung Electronics.

Samsung has been developing rollable OLED technologies for many years, the demonstration above is from 2016. And of course it makes sense for Samsung to release these displays this year as other companies are already ahead of it - LG Electronics is set to release its first rollable smartphone in 2021 using BOE panels, and TCL/CSoT also recently demonstrated rollable OLEDs.

Samsung Electronics reported its Q4 2020 financial results, with revenues of $55 billion and net income of $5.84 billion (less than expected by analysts). The company says that the lower revenues were due to a weakness in the memory and consumer devices businesses, offset by the best quarter ever for Samsung Display.

Samsung expects its OLED business to improve in the next quarter as major customers increase adoption of OLED displays. Looking ahead to 2021, Samsung sees increased demand for OLEDs for high-end and mid-range smartphones. The company aims to diversify into markets such as laptops, tablets and automotive applications.

TADF OLED materials developer Kyulux announced a new CEO and President, to replace the current CEO Mr. Junji Adachi. Mr. Nakano will become the company's new CEO starting February 11, while Junji has been appointed as Chief Strategy Office. This is a part of a wide management change at Kyulux that reflects the company's transition from material development to commercialization.

Mr. Nakano has an impressive industry background in addition to management positions, and since 2014 he was an executive officer and manager director of Japan's Innovation Network (INCJ).