Samsung Display, the display manufacturing arm of the South Korean conglomerate, has unveiled a new OLED display optimized for 5G smartphones. The company says its new offering emits less blue light and consumes less power than its predecessors.
The newly developed OLED display has been awarded “Eye Care Display” certification by Swiss certification and testing company SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance). In its testing, SGS found that the new OLED display emits 6.5 percent blue light.
This marks a significant drop from the 7.5 percent level of the Samsung OLED panel released last year. Samsung says its OLED panels boast about 70 percent less blue light emissions than their LCD counterparts.
Illinois, US-based Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has also certified the new Samsung OLED display for lower power consumption. According to UL, power consumption has dropped by 15 percent. The average power consumption while performing tasks like taking pictures, viewing news and entertainment, and surfing the web dropped from about 1.5W to 1.3W.
The OLED panels used on Samsung’s newly launched Galaxy S20 flagships also feature Eye Care certification. The panels, which offer a 120Hz refresh rate, have also been certified by VDE for 100 percent Mobile Color Volume in the DCI-P3 color range.
New Samsung OLED panels are optimized for 5G smartphones
Samsung says its new OLED display panels are optimized for 5G smartphones. However, there doesn’t seem to be any reason why they couldn’t be used on 4G phones.
Maybe that’s Samsung’s way of saying that the new panels are for the upcoming generation of premium smartphones. The majority of those devices will have 5G support.
“5G is expanding into a rapidly commercialized ecosystem where consumers can be connected to 8K as well as 4K streaming services, cloud-based gaming content and infotainment networks, increasing mobile device usage everywhere,” said Jee-ho Baek, vice president at Samsung Display.
Industry forecasts suggest the 5G smartphone market will grow from 14 percent this year to 50 percent by 2024. In terms of volume, analysts say there will be over 750 million 5G smartphones on the market by 2024.
This will result in a substantial increase in monthly mobile data usage, from 7GB in 2018 to 32GB by 2024.
Samsung Display has been a dominant force in the mobile OLED market for years. The company holds over 90 percent share in this market. Now with the latest developments, it seems to be very much on track to keep things that way.
“Our 5G-optimized OLED display is taking the lead in the 5G era with its crystal clear imagery, distinguished designs, economical power consumption and increasingly eye-protective functionality,” Baek added.