According to new reports out of Korea, OPPO has allegedly gone to Samsung to purchase OLED display panels bearing the latter company’s distinctive “edge.” That may or may not refer to the Korean tech giant’s Infinity displays, which are commonly found on Samsung’s innovative flagship devices. It’s also difficult to gauge the accuracy of the reports. However, the displays in question do seem to suggest that these will be designed along the same lines. As to the timeframes involved, it’s unlikely that these will be included in the upcoming OPPO Find X since Samsung is said to be set to begin supplying OPPO with the panels as of the end of June. That device is expected to officially launch on June 19. There also hasn’t been any word on how many of the displays have been purchased in the deal.
The display in question, meanwhile, is said to measure in at 6.42-inches and will be curved at the right and left edges to wrap into the frame. That would push the handset it’s installed on into the phablet category of Android devices, assuming the news is reliable. It would also seem to imply that OPPO plans to implement one of Samsung’s most prominent features on its own smartphone. Bearing that in mind, the device would certainly not be budget-friendly. Samsung’s Edge panels reportedly cost around five times what an ordinary display is priced at – with a price tag of around $100 per panel. That’s a considerable added cost to the production of any Android smartphone shipping with that type of screen. What’s more, it’s unlikely that OPPO would opt to install budget or even mid-range hardware components behind that panel since it’s already going to come at an increased cost. Instead, the device would almost certainly be a flagship in the upper range of the price spectrum.
Whether or not there’s any weight to the news is something that will probably remain in question until OPPO or Samsung make an official announcement. Not only would the OPPO device in question be its first to come with a curved display. It would be an anomaly in the overall market. Samsung, as effectively the only mass manufacturer of the panels, has remained the only device OEM to utilize the technology in its devices since their introduction.