OLED Smartphones
It has been confirmed that OLED panels made by Samsung Display were adopted again for a new Android smartphone revealed by Google and Huawei, after the recently-released Mate S.
Google announced on Sept. 30 that it used a 5.7" OLED screen with a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels in the Nexus 6P. This is the first time for any smart phone vendor other than Samsung Electronics to introduce a Nexus series model using an OLED panel. Since Samsung and Huawei, which are the largest and the third-largest smartphone sellers, respectively, have started to use OLED displays in their flagship products, there is growing anticipation for market expansion.
Not only Huawei, but also emerging Chinese smartphone makers like ZTE, Meizu, Vivo, and Oppo are releasing smartphones with OLED displays as well. The atmosphere is quite different from two or three years ago, when Samsung Electronics touted OLED panels as a strong point of its products. Samsung Display seems to be very delighted with this trend. The company makes up 99 percent of the AMOLED panel market as of the last quarter.
In the past, Samsung Electronics used LCD screens in mid to low-priced phones, instead of OLED displays, in order to reduce the cost of production, but the tech giant is now mainly using OLED panels. It indicates that OLED panels are more affordable.
In the meantime, some in the industry are saying that Apple will feature OLED displays in new iPhones in 2017 or 2018, which will expand the OLED smartphone market. Contrary to initial expectations, Apple used small OLED panels in the Apple Watch. Sir Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of design at Apple, also showed interest in OLED displays during a recent interview.