OLED monitors: introduction and industry news - Page 14

According to ETNews, LG display aims to start producing OLED panels for computer monitors and laptops. LG wants to diversify their OLED product lineup, and this seems like a logical next step. ETNws estimates that the first monitors will be released in 2016 or 2017.

Samsung 12.1 inch laptop prototype, 2009

LG Display is currently focused to solve the burn-in problem inherent with OLEDs which is a problem with monitors. LG also sees blurred-images on their OLEDs when used with different image sizes and monitor frequencies and has to solve that as well. LGD will first produce monitor panels and notebooks will come next as prices will have to be lower for that market segment.

According to a report from Japan, JOLED is set to establish a new OLED research facility in Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture in a $161 investment. The facility will include a pilot line that will be able to produce samples by the end of 2016, and the facility will also evolve into a mass production fab that will begin production by 2018 (this will require, of course, a much larger investment).

JOLED is mainly targeting medium sized (10 to 30 inch displays) to be used in tablets, laptops and monitors. JOLED is reportedly in talks with Apple regarding a possible iPad AMOLED supply agreement. This new report from Japan actually suggests that Apple aims to team up with both LGD and JOLED for a tablet OLED supply agreement - with LG Display to start supplying tablet OLEDs at the end of 2016 and JOLED To join when the new facility is ready in 2018.

According to reports from Korea, LG Display intends to produce OLED displays to used in professional broadcast-type monitors in 2016. These are probably medium to large sized displays (10" to 30") and these kinds of applications carry a high margin. The reports further say that Samsung Display is also considering entering this market.

Sony BVM-X300

Sony currently offers several professional monitors in several sizes (from 7.4" to 30") and in several series. Sony's OLED monitors provide a superior image quality compared to LCDs, and the cost difference is not so large because in these premium products the cost of the panel itself is a small portion of the total product cost. Sony already sold over 15,000 professional OLED monitors, and their latest monitor is the 30" 4K BVM-X300. Sony's OLED monitor success may be what's motivating LG and Samsung to enter this market.

A couple of months ago I posted an article about OLED monitors and laptop displays in which I discussed why there isn't any such product on the market yet. Today the Korea Times reports that Samsung Display will today unveil new 14" OLED panels at the IMID 2014 tradeshow in Korea.

If this report is correct, this is very interesting - as it probably means that Samsung Electronics is finally developing a laptop device with an OLED display. This could also be used in a large tablet (perhaps with a keyboard attachment) or a laptop/tablet hybrid device. We'll probably know more later when we have a real report from IMID.

In April 2013 Sony showed a prototype 30" 4K OLED panels at NAB 2013, promising to release them in 2014. Now the company officially launched this professional OLED monitor product, while shipments will begin in February 2015. Price is not determined yet, but it'll sure be expensive...

Sony's BVM-X300 is Sony's flagship professional monitor. Besides the 30" 4K (4096x2016) OLED panel (produced by Sony), it features a high dynamic range, wide viewing angles, quick response and high contrast. The BMV-X300 can display 4K, 2K, UHD and HD formats and supports wide color gamut standards.

An OLED-Info reader recently raised the question - where are the OLED laptops and OLED monitors? This is an interesting question. Samsung currently produces AMOLEDs ranging in size from 1.63" for wearables to 10.5" tablet displays and LG Display is mass producing 55", 65" and even 77" OLED TVs.

Samsung 12.1 inch laptop prototype, 2009

It seems that technically there shouldn't be a problem producing 13-15 inch OLED panels for laptops or even 20-25 inch panels for monitors. In terms of pixel density, these panels will be simpler to make compared to Samsung's mobile phone panels. Even a 13" 4K laptop panel will require only 339 PPI - much lower than SDC's latest 5.1" QHD panels (577 PPI). And of course SDC can start with a 15" FHD panel (146 PPI) which is easier to produce.

In April 2013 Sony showed a prototype 30" 4K OLED panels at NAB 2013, promising to release them in 2014. A couple of weeks ago at this year's NAB, Sony showed the panels again, this time as real product prototypes (and not just panels). The company still aims to deliver the 30" OLED monitors in 2014.

The 30" panels ofer 4K (4096x2160) resolution and will be made at Sony's Nagoya fab - the same fab that makes Sony's current 17" and 25" panels. The new product will be very similar to Sony's current PVM X300 4K, but with an OLED instead of the LCD.

Sony's new 16.5" PVM-1741A professional monitors are now selling for $3,700 at Amazon.com  - that's $600 cheaper than Sony's official US list price of $4,300. The new A Series are an update to their older PVM series, with a new OLED panel (the same one used in Sony's higher end BVM monitors) that offers a wider viewing angle and a reduced color shift (by half, compared to previous models).

The PVM monitors offer Full-HD (1080p) support, 178-degrees viewing angle, 10-bit drivers and a 1W mono speaker. Inputs include two 3G-SDI, HDMI, composite and Ethernet.

Update: Sony pulled off the video, it is no longer available.

Early in April Sony unveiled the new "A" Series of their TRIMASTER EL professional OLED monitors. The new series uses an improved OLED panel that sports better viewing angles and a greatly reduced color shift (this was achieved by a redesigned pixel construction). Sony published a short and interesting video that compares the viewing angles between the new panels (on the top) and the old ones.

A couple of weeks ago Sony updated their TRIMASTER EL professional OLED monitors with the new "A" Series". These new monitors sport an improved OLED panel that has a redesigned pixel construction which enabled a major improvement in viewing angles and a greatly reduced color shift. Today Sony released a new short video ad showing how their professional OLED monitors compare to LCD ones:

Sony OLED technology enables accurate color reproduction, precision imaging and quality picture consistency.