The Next iPhone Will Feature An OLED Display, Says Bloomberg (bloomberg.com) 67
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Apple Inc. has big plans to outfit its next iPhone with vibrant, energy-sipping organic LED displays, seeking to entice consumers with new technology that's already been embraced by other high-end smartphone makers. The trouble is that the four main suppliers for such components won't have enough production capacity to make screens for all new iPhones next year, with constraints continuing into 2018, people familiar with the matter said, presenting a potential challenge for the Cupertino, California-based company. OLED screens are more difficult to produce, putting Apple at the mercy of suppliers that are still working to manufacture the displays in mass quantities, the people said. The four largest producers are Samsung Display Co., LG Display Co., Sharp Corp., and Japan Display Inc. While Samsung is on track to be the sole supplier for the new displays next year, the South Korean company may not be able to make enough due to low yield rates combined with increasing iPhone demand. The supply constraints may force Apple to use OLED in just one version of the next-generation iPhone, push back adoption of the technology or cause other snags. Apple plans to ship at least one new iPhone with an OLED screen next year, the 10th anniversary of the smartphone's debut, people with knowledge of the matter said. A pair of other new iPhone models will likely feature screens that use older LCD technology, partly because there won't be enough OLED displays to satisfy anticipated demand, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The OLED iPhone, at least, will have a new look that extends glass from the display to the device's back and edges, according to a person familiar with Apple's plans. This all-glass design will have a virtual Home button embedded in an edge-to-edge screen, rather than a physical button that can be pressed, the person added.
iPhone = elections (Score:5, Insightful)
We have to hear about the next one a year or two in advance, all the damn time.
The real question is... (Score:5, Funny)
Will this allow them to make the phone thinner?
I love my iPhone 7, but the battery still lasts too long, and there's still too many goddam ports and buttons on the thing. I wish Apple would come out with a thinner phone that had half the battery capacity, no Lightning port, and a completely sealed and smooth chassis. Extra points for making it so thin there's no practical way I could ever put it in my pocket and sit down without breaking it. They're almost there with the 6 and 7, but not quite. I hate having any semblance of durability on my premium hardware. The phone should never last longer than the warranty, otherwise there's no reason for me to go out and buy new shiny hardware every 3 years.
Re:The real question is... (Score:5, Funny)
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I mean, if your wife was having a baby I can understand not getting in line just 3 days early rather than the usual 7.
What are you talking about? She should be in line with you. When her water breaks, just ask Siri how to deliver the child.
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Making it thinner isn't really an issue, but making it thinner and last the warranty period is. Damn the EU and their unrealistic demand that consumer electronics have to last at least 6 months!
But I am fairly sure Apple will make a bold move forwards and expect (rightfully) that people will not try to go through the hassle of having their 4+ month old ancient device repaired but instead buy the new model.
LED vs LCD (Score:2)
I have yet to use an LED display of any type. Have they improved over the last few years? Last I checked, the colors always looked way off when compared to an LCD and they seemed a bit more "pixely". Also, LED displays always seemed "brighter", but only until you go outside and then LCD seems much better.
I am guessing LED is the future and will eventually replace LCD TV's and monitors as well as phones, it is just that the displays are starting small so phones get to be first.
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The main problem with OLEDs is still that they age and that the colors age differently. Don't run your OLED at full blast. It will burn in. On the other hand, there really isn't an alternative if you want good black levels.
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Don't run your OLED at full blast. It will burn in..
Is it 2013 again?
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I'm also curious for a different reason. The newest OLED display I've used was in a Lumia Icon and text was fuzzy around the edges compared to an older, lower-res phone with an LED backlit LCD display. My Nexus One had the same issue to a much larger extent.
If they use a PenTile or derivative display on the next iPhone I will not consider purchasing one.
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I have yet to use an LED display of any type. Have they improved over the last few years? Last I checked, the colors always looked way off when compared to an LCD and they seemed a bit more "pixely".
Short answer is yes. Long answer is:
The color reproduction of OLED was from the start far better than any LCD on the market, even with the early phones. The problem was that this was not compensated for with colour management resulting in hyper over saturated colours that looked horrible.
The pixely problem was due to the use of a pentile pattern with early OLEDs. These were used partially because at the time they needed more space between pixels during manufacture and partially the red and blue pixels faded
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About color management: This is a two-fold problem. Both Google and Apple refuse to support *ANY* color management in their mobile OSes at all. Save an image in the AdobeRGB or ProPhoto RGB color space, view them in your web browser on the desktop and it'll properly translate the color information to what ever color space the desktop OS is running in. On the phones, they absolutely ignore all color-space information from the image, not even trying to convert it to sRGB. Checking bug reports online for both
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That is not directly the problem. Yes it would be nice for the OS to naively support internal colour management algorithms but the ability for a display to display accurate colour does not depend on the OS being able to translate the colour (save for the example of not understanding the source material which is what you describe).
Colour management baked into the OS is important if you have multiple display with multiple different output gamuts. It then becomes important for this to be a feature. *sidenote*
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My phone is an OPX with OLED display. It looks amazing.
I can't be the only one who hates OLED (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, it consumes less power, but it looks terrible. Starts out dimmer than LCD, gets dimmer with age, color balance starts feeling off subpar, gets terrible with age, always looks bad outdoors, burn-in prone, etc. It also feels like the colors "bleed" more in LED, although that could just be my perception. I know that blacks are supposed to be better with LED than LCD (and thus they get higher nominal contrast ratios), but in most viewing conditions the black difference is not something you notice, unless it's very dark. I once went around to my coworkers and compared my Z2 (LCD) to their cell phones of roughly the same age and resolution and there was no comparison, the Z2 looked way better.
Maybe the technology has advanced significantly since then... but otherwise, no thank you.
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I disagree. I think it looks amazing. Every smartphone I've owned at this point has been an OLED screen and I can't go back to LCD. I definitely notice the blacks, and the more-vibrant colors (LCD looks very subdued and washed-out). A Pixar movie on OLED is something to behold.
Nice to see Apple catching up to 2010.
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All I can say is, I did a direct side-by-side comparison. You say LCD looks washed out to you, I found LED to be dim, oversaturated and unbalanced - and the older the phone, the worse all of that becomes. I guess if you're watching Pixar movies where it's all about cartoony colors then I guess that's not a problem for you. I prefer realism.
Re: I can't be the only one who hates OLED (Score:2)
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but it looks terrible.
Matter of opinion incidentally going against testing.
Starts out dimmer than LCD
Depends on the design.
gets dimmer with age
By an irrelevant and almost immeasurable amount for something with the lifetime of a phone
color balance starts feeling off subpar
Which has nothing to do with the display which offers far superior colour performance to any LCD display on the market (measurable)
gets terrible with age
I'm beginning to wonder if it's just your eyes going bad.
always looks bad outdoors
Yeah it's definitely your eyes.
burn-in prone, etc.
Oh I get it now. Sorry it wasn't your eyes, it's that you're still using a Galaxy S1. Maybe it's time you upgraded to a phone wi
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Yeah, it consumes less power, but it looks terrible. Starts out dimmer than LCD, gets dimmer with age, color balance starts feeling off subpar, gets terrible with age, always looks bad outdoors, burn-in prone, etc.
OLED, at least recent screens, are far superior to LCD in a number of areas, including brightness, color balance and gamut, and especially viewing in the dark and in bright light areas. If you move to TV technology, the worst tech in the last 40 years has been LCD screens. The motion blur, lack of color depth and lack of gradient abilities are what keep bothering the crap out of me, and that includes even the newest LCD based TVs.
It also feels like the colors "bleed" more in LED, although that could just be my perception.
Actually, that's the gradient effect, something highly desirable in a screen o
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I use a desktop wireless charging stand for my Note 5 and an app called (IIRC) "desk clock".
Due to the OLED display being totally pure black, I can set the desk clock to be ridiculously dim and not illuminate my entire bedroom, it really does look like a bedside desk clock, except it moves around to prevent screen damage.
I believe OLED still has burn in, but it's getting better - the colours are ridiculously good and the blacks essentially perfect.
Somehow (Score:2)
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This is an opportunity for American manufacturers to step up. Isn't anyone interested in being a domestic display supplier?
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Yeah sure.
Step 1: Spend ludicrous amounts of money on manufacture.
Step 2a: Buy all the required IP.
Step 2b: Ignore IP laws and buy all the required lawyers.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Chapter 11.
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Yeah sure.
Step 1: Spend ludicrous amounts of money on manufacture.
Step 2a: Buy all the required IP.
Step 2b: Ignore IP laws and buy all the required lawyers.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Chapter 11.
Buy enough politicians and it will be profitable whether you go bankrupt or not.
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At the same time our glasses will become an extra coating of shininess. Complaints that this turns the iPhone even more into an overpriced mirror than it already is were met with derisive comments about luddites not understanding the vision here.
Welcome ro 2009 (Score:4, Insightful)
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In other news... (Score:1)
...the next iPhone will not have an on-off button. Because courage.
Please God No (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Please God No (Score:5, Informative)
In a nutshell, OLED has completely black blacks, and has a wider color gamut than LED - it can display more saturated colors like in real life. The current TV and web standard for color gamut is sRGB, which unfortunately was a reduction in color gamut from the NTSC standard that was used for CRT TVs. Early LCDs were vastly inferior in color reproduction than CRTs, and manufacturers managed to get the sRGB color standard hobbled to compensate for this. So all images you see designed to sRGB can only display up to about 50% the color saturation of real-life. OLEDs easily cover the Adobe RGB color gamut [cloudfront.net], which is pretty close to the old NTSC gamut.
When you display an sRGB image on a display which is capable of a wider gamut, it basically stretches the sRGB colors to map them onto the display's gamut. This is what leads to the lurid colors. The green which is supposed to be 50% of the deepest green you can see in real life (maximum green for sRGB) gets mapped to 70% of the deepest green you can see in real life, making it look unnaturally green. But if you calibrate the display with a color profile, the OS sees that the image it's trying to display is sRGB, and correctly maps it to the (roughly) lower 2/3rds of the color range the display is capable of, and the 50% green remains 50%. It's like how a stereo system which can output 200 Watts can also output 100 Watts. But to play music normalized for a 100 Watt stereo system, you have to turn down the volume on a 200 Watt system. Android currently doesn't have a standardized way to turn down the volume. (Meanwhile, the 100 Watt system can never output sound at 200 Watts.)
With proper software support, there's basically no downside to OLED other than burn-in. Color shift and fade can be compensated for by profiling the screen again. Color professionals (photographers, graphics artists, videographers) do this with their own colorimeter they buy. But there's no reason phone stores couldn't have a colorimeter on hand. You could drop by the store once a year, they use their colorimeter to profile your phone in 10 minutes, and you're out the door with a new color profile and accurate colors. But the OS has to support custom color profiles to be able to do this. And the burn-in problem was more or less solved in the CRT days with screen savers. CRTs used phosphors which also suffered burn-in, and a screen saver evened out phosphor use enough to mitigate burn-in. (You younger folks have probably wondered why they're called a screen "saver" - now you know).
Comment removed (Score:3)
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transflective screens are still LCDs...
Don't count your chickens before the eggs have hat (Score:1)