Competing technologies - Page 24

DisplayMate posted a new review of the display in Apple's new iPads - both the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3. DisplayMate says that Apple used a major innovation in the iPad Air 2, a new anti-reflective layer coating that is scratch- and fingerprint- resistant. This results in a display that reduces ambient light reflection and performs better in that regard than any smartphone or tablet ever tested at DisplayMate.

Besides the anti-reflectance coating and the bonded cover glass (which has been used in many competing tablets and smartphones for years, according to DisplayMate) the iPad Air 2 display is essentially unchanged and identical in performance to the iPad 4 introduced in 2012 (and actually slightly lower in performance than the original iPad Air).

According to Digitimes Research, the prices of OLED TVs will be double that of UHD (4K) LCD TVs through 2016. Digitimes expects over 17.8 million UHD TVs to be sold in 2014 - up 475% from 2013. More than half of all UHD TVs will ship to the Chinese market.

LG 65-inch UHD OLED TV

LG is still the only OLED TV maker, and recently the company started a major marketing push of UHD OLED TVs in China. LG's 65" UHD OLED TV is also shipping in the US for $10,000. LG keeps lowering the prices of their OLED TVs, but of course the prices of UHD LCD TVs will also get lower. 

Samsung is still on the side lines regarding OLED TVs, and reportedly the company is aiming to produce quantum-dot enhanced LCDs soon. One of the problem with QDs is that they include Cadmium, and now the Korea Times says that Samsung is collaborating with Dow Chemical to develop cadmium-free displays.

According to the report, Samsung Electronics aims to introduce the first cadmium-free QD TV in 2015. Dow chemical already started to produce the cadmium-free QD materials in its Korean's plant.

Samsung Display introduced three new special displays modes enabled by AMOLED technology - an ultra power-saving mode (already used in some of their smartphones), color weakness mode and super dimming mode. These are great examples how OLED's emissive nature can be used for innovative solutions.

The color weakness mode can help people with color vision deficiency to distinguish red and green clearly - by inceasing (or decreasing) the brightness of the red and green subpixels.

An LCD works by selectively blocking light from a backlighting unit (BLU, usually made from LEDs) using a crystal which changes its polarization-filtering when voltage is applied. An electrochromic device is similar in idea but more simple as they can be turned from being transparent to being opaque. These kind of displays haven't been commercialized successfully yet due to fragile materials and material mismatches with the electrodes.

But new research at Bilkent University shows that graphene can be used to create such a device that features high percentage optical modulation, optical tuning properties in the UV to infrared, good electrical conductivity with no material mismatches. The display is mechanically flexible.

US-based Cree develops and manufactures LED materials and devices, mostly based on silicon carbide. Cree, founded in 1987, is one of the leading LED companies in the world.

Up until today I was not aware of any OLED research at Cree, but a few days ago the company was awarded with a US patent (USPTO# 8,841,834) regarding a hybrid OLED and LED lighting system - in which the white light is emitted by mixing OLED light with LED light (or other SSL white light source). This patent was submitted in 2012.

Two weeks ago, Apple unveiled their latest iPhones, the 6 (4.7", 1334x750) and 6 Plus (5.5", 1920x1080) - both with new IPS LCD displays. The measurement experts at DisplayMate did their usual methodical testing on these new phones and compared these to the latest LCD and OLED displays.

Apple included several technical display enhancements in these new displays - like Photo aligned IPS, Dual Domain pixels, and Improved Polarizers. According to DisplayMate, these are indeed very good displays, and the iPhone 6 Plus is the best performing smartphone LCD display ever tested. The iPhone 6 has pretty much the same display, but the lower resolution means rescaled images do not look as good.

Updated: it is now confirmed, Apple's Watch uses an AMOLED display!

So Apple did unveil their smartwatch yesterday! The simply called Apple Watch is a square-bodied touch-enabled smart watch, and you can see it below. It comes in three choices of materials (aluminum, stainless steel and 18-karat gold), includes four sensors, changeable straps and requires an iPhone to pair with. The most exciting feature seems to be the "Digital Crown" button navigator.

And the most interesting thing - Apple did not reveal the display type, besides saying that it is a "flexible Retina" display, and that the cover is sapphire. They didn't even detail the resolution or size of the display. To cut a long story short - I believe that Apple did not yet choose whether this is an LCD or an OLED. My explanation below...

This isn't a big surprise, but LG said it will soon stop producing Plasma (PDP) panels, and the company is expected to officially announce this soon. As LG sees OLED TV as the future TV technology, it's likely that more resources will be devoted now to towards OLED TV development.

The other two major PDP makers, Panasonic and Samsung, already stopped producing these panels, leaving China's Changhong as the single plasma producer.

Samsung Display's CEO, Park Dong-gun, said that the time is not yet ripe for OLED TV panel investment for SDC. While Samsung already have the related production and infrastructure technology to produce OLED TVs, they are still waiting for decisions at Samsung Electronics.

This is of course in stark contrast to LG, who's far more committed to OLED TVs, and it seems that LG's WRGB technology was a better bet (at least for the moment) than Samsung's direct-emission tech.