Competing technologies - Page 23

Towards the end of 2014, it was reported that Samsung Display aims to lower the cost of their OLED displays, to be more competitive with LCDs (some suggested that Samsung aims to bring small-sized OLED cost below that of competing LCDs).

Now Digitimes reports that according to its sources Samsung indeed aims to close the gap between OLED and LCD pricing during 2015. In 2013 an AMOLED panel used to cost about $10-15 more than a competing LCD (they probably mean a 4" - 5" panel). In 2014 this shrunk to only $5.

Two new technologies seem to dominate the LCD TV market in CES 2015. First up are quantum dots TVs - which are LED backlit LCDs that include a QD film that enhances the TV's color gamut, efficiency, brightness and contrast. Sony has been producing QD TVs for almost two years, but this year we have new launches from Samsung, LG, Philips, TCL and others.

Samsung SUHD (credit: Sri Peruvemba, Marketer International)

These new wave of QD TVs are Cadmium-free, which was one of the major stumbling block towards real QD commercialization. The major advantage of QD TVs is the enhanced color gamut, which is even larger than the color gamut currently offered by OLED TVs (although LG promises their OLEDs will catch up soon). LG still considers OLEDs as their future TV technology, and Merck also says that quantum-dots are not a real game changer (unlike OLEDs).

LG Display announced that it is going to unveil new slim LED LCD prototype TVs at CES 2015. LGD will show 55" and 65" "Art Slim" LCDs that are 7.5 mm (55") and 8.2 mm deep - which means LG managed to reduce their LCD depth by 75% (they also reduced the weight by 25%).

This means that these new LCDs rival the thickness of LG's OLEDs which are about 4.5 mm thick (apart for the connector box which is a lot thicker). OLEDs can be a lot thinner of course (Sony for example showed a 0.3 mm 11" OLED panel prototype back in 2008), but LG's new slim TVs show again how difficult it is to compete with the combatant LCD technology.

A few days ago LG announced it was going to unveil Quantum-Dots enhanced 4K LCDs next month, which made some people wonder whether LG will abandon its OLED TV program - even though LG repeatedly stated that OLED is the future display technology of choice and that those QDs TVs will be positioned above LG's current high-end Ultra HD LCDs but below the company's OLED TV range.

Probably in response to those speculations, LG Display posted a new article that explains how OLEDs are indeed superior to QD-enhanced LCDs (they call them QD TVs).

Following earlier reports that LG is set to release Quantum-Dots enhanced LCD TVs in 2015, LG Electronics announced today that they will unveil the first 4K QD-LCDs in CES 2015 next month. LG's QD-LCDs will offer better colors (wider palette and improved saturation) compared to their regular LCDs.

LG 55-inch curved OLED TV

Those Quantum Dot TVs will be positioned above LG's current high-end Ultra HD LCDs but below the company's OLED TV range, which offer the best image quality ever achieved. Indeed LG still considers OLED to be the superior technology in the long run.

Quantum Dots enhanced LCDs are starting to enter the market, with reports saying that both LG and Samsung will release such TVs in 2015. Michael Grund, the managing director of Merck Korea, however, says that this technology will not have a significant impact on the global TV and display markets - unlike OLED which could be a game changer.

Quantum Dots are used to enhance the color gamut and efficiency of LCD displays. Sony already commercialized quantum-dots TVs and smaller panel display, as the QD-LCDs are far easier to produce compared to OLED TVs.

DisplayMate published a new article focusing on display color accuracy. Testing the six leading mobile displays, DisplayMate tested which ones perform best in terms of color accuracy. While all displays performed very good, DisplayMate found the Galaxy Note 4 to be the winner in this test, achieving the best results in all tested categories.

Historically, people often complained that Samsung's OLED offer overly saturated colors and inaccurate images. It's great to see OLEDs overcome yet another perceived disadvantage and yet again prove that even at its infancy, OLEDs outperform LCDs in yet another aspect.

A senior VP at LGD recently declared in the IMID Display Business Forum in Korea that according to measurements done by the company, LCD screens emit 3.1 times more blue light than OLED screens. The measurements were done 120 cm away from TVs, 60 mm from monitors and 30 cm from smartphones (TVs are larger and emit more blue light than other types of screens).

Blue light is high energy visible light, widely acknowledged to bear harmful effects like discomfort to the eye and damage to the retina, as well as serve as a contributing factor to diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity and insomnia. Children seem to have delicate retinas that are highly susceptible to the dangers of blue light.

Last month it was reported that LG will soon stop producing Plasma (PDP) panels, and today LG announced formally that it stopped PDP production. Plasma TV popularity was in decline for years, and LG wants to focus on OLED TV as the future TV technology.

The other two major PDP makers, Panasonic and Samsung, already stopped producing plasma displays. The only remaining producer is China's Changhong (although I also heard that this company will halt PDP production soon).

Reuters reports that LG Electronics decided to develop Quantum-Dot LCDs. In the long run LGE still sees OLED as the superior technology, but QD does provide "tangible benefits" for its current line of LCD panels.

LGE 55-inch OLED TV

Only a few days ago the Korea Times reported that Samsung is set to introduce the first cadmium-free QD TV in 2015. Samsung is collaborating with Dow Chemical on those QDs, and according to Korea Times LG is also working together with Dow on cadmium-free QDs.