Samsung Display has developed the world's first smartphone organic light-emitting diode (OLED) that simultaneously delivers 2K resolution and a 165Hz high refresh rate.
Samsung Display said on the 14th that it developed a 6.9-inch 2K·165Hz OLED and will supply it for the gaming smartphone "iQOO 16," which the premium brand iQOO of Vivo will launch this month.
OLEDs for high-spec gaming smartphones released recently deliver 1.5K resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate. While maintaining the refresh rate, Samsung Display's new product raises the resolution to 2K and reduces screen power consumption by about 30%.
To achieve a 165Hz refresh rate at 2K resolution, a new frame must be displayed roughly every 6 milliseconds (ms). As resolution and refresh rate increase, the number of pixels to process grows, making it critical to secure fast pixel charging, stable operation, and power efficiency at the same time.
Samsung Display increased the thickness of pixel signal lines by 10% over previous designs to reduce current resistance and boost pixel charging speed. It applied a finer 22-nanometer (nm) process to the display driver IC (DDIC) that controls each pixel, compared with the previous 28 nm. It also cut the driver chip's computational power consumption by 30% from before.
To enhance emission performance and picture quality, it also applied the latest organic materials and the no-polarizer OLED technology "LEAD™." In addition, by applying picture quality optimization technology based on artificial intelligence (AI) accumulated over three years, it improved luminance and color uniformity.
The new product's peak brightness is 2,800 nits in high brightness mode (HBM). Based on an On Pixel Ratio (OPR) of 1%, which indicates the ratio of operating pixels among all pixels, it reaches up to 10,000 nits.
Lee Ho-jung, head of product planning at Samsung Display (vice president), said, "We concentrated our OLED technology to simultaneously achieve high resolution, high refresh rate, high brightness, and power efficiency," adding, "Based on the competitiveness of Samsung OLED optimized for high-spec gaming, we will strengthen our technology leadership in the premium smartphone market."