Samsung Display has pushed smartphone OLED performance to a new threshold, developing what it says is the world’s first 6.9-inch panel to combine 2K resolution with a 165-hertz refresh rate while consuming about 30 percent less power.
High-end gaming smartphones currently on the market typically feature 1.5K OLED displays with refresh rates of up to 165Hz. Samsung Display’s new panel raises the resolution to 2K while maintaining the same refresh rate, targeting increasingly graphics-intensive mobile games.
At 165Hz, the display must refresh the screen roughly every 6 milliseconds. As resolution and refresh rates increase, more pixels need to be processed in less time, making fast pixel charging, stable operation and power efficiency more difficult to achieve simultaneously.
Samsung said it addressed the challenge by increasing the thickness of pixel signal wiring by 10 percent through precision design at the 0.1-nanometer level. The larger cross-sectional area reduces electrical resistance and allows pixels to charge faster.
The display driver integrated circuit, which controls individual pixels, also uses a 22-nanometer manufacturing process, compared with the previous 28-nanometer process. The change reduces power consumption from the chip’s processing operations by about 30 percent, according to the company.
The panel incorporates Samsung’s latest organic materials as well as Lead, its polarizer-free OLED technology. The company also applied AI-based image optimization technology developed over the past three years to improve brightness and color uniformity.
The display reaches a peak brightness of 2,800 nits in high-brightness mode. When just 1 percent of the panel’s pixels are illuminated, peak brightness can reach up to 10,000 nits.
Samsung said the panel will make its commercial debut this month in the iQOO 16, a high-performance gaming smartphone from Vivo’s iQOO brand.
“We brought together our OLED technologies to achieve high resolution, a high refresh rate, strong brightness and greater power efficiency at the same time,” said Lee Ho-jung, head of the mobile display product planning team at Samsung Display.
By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)
