The Flagship 2017 OLED Smartphones
Samsung Galaxy
– Google Pixel – Apple iPhone
Dr. Raymond M. Soneira
President, DisplayMate Technologies
Corporation
Copyright © 1990-2017 by DisplayMate
Technologies Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
This article, or any part
thereof, may not be copied, reproduced, mirrored, distributed or incorporated
into any other work without
the prior written permission of DisplayMate Technologies Corporation
Introduction
Up until just a few years ago all Smartphones came with LCD displays. But starting
in 2010 Samsung began manufacturing displays using a new and very different technology
called OLED
(for Organic Light Emitting Diodes). It takes many years to refine and improve
any new display technology, so the first notable OLED Smartphone, the Google Nexus One (made for Google by HTC using
Samsung OLEDs) came in decidedly last place in our 2010 Smartphone
Display Shoot-Out. Samsung then introduced its own OLED series of Galaxy S and Galaxy Note
Smartphones, producing a new OLED generation almost every six months since
2010. The new Galaxy S8 will launch in March or
April of 2017.
Samsung has been busy
systematically improving OLED display performance twice a year with each new
Galaxy Smartphone generation since 2010, when we started tracking OLED
displays. Every new OLED generation has provided
significant enhancements, so they have improved rapidly, and regularly leapfrog
each other in display performance. As a result, OLEDs have evolved into
excellent Smartphone displays. The detailed lab tests and measurements
in our in-depth Display
Technology Shoot-Out article series quantitatively document the series of
systematic display performance improvements, with each new generation breaking
existing display performance records and then earning our up-to-that-date Best Smartphone Display
Award. That is exactly how technologies should improve...
As a result, in a span of just seven years OLED display technology is now
exceeding the performance of the best LCDs for Smartphones. There is no better
confirmation of the OLED lead in performance than a series of well founded
rumors from a number of prominent publications that Apple will be switching the
top-of-the-line iPhone to OLED displays in 2017. Many other Smartphone manufacturers have already switched or will soon
be switching to OLED displays...
The Switch to OLED from LCD Smartphones
LCDs are a great cutting edge high performance display technology for
Tablets to TVs, but for small handheld Smartphones, OLED displays provide a
number of significant advantages over LCDs including: being much thinner, much
lighter, with a much smaller bezel providing a near rimless edge-to-edge
design. They can be made flexible and into curved screens, plus they have a
very fast response time, better viewing angles, and an always-on display mode.
Many of the OLED performance advantages result from the fact that all
Smartphone LCDs are dependent on transmitting the varying characteristics of
their always-on full screen White LED backlight – but for OLEDs each individual
sub-pixel is independently directly electrically powered to emit light, which
can provide better color accuracy, image contrast accuracy, and screen
uniformity, in addition to incredibly flexible display power management since
only the active image sub-pixels draw power based on their individual
brightness levels.
Because of their versatile power management capabilities, OLEDs are not
only more power efficient than LCDs for most image content, but they now
deliver much higher peak Brightness than LCDs because the maximum power can
delivered to just the sub-pixels that are needed for producing the current
image. However, for mostly all white screen content LCDs are likely to remain
brighter and more power efficient for a while.
The Switch to Flexible OLED Displays
Up until recently OLED displays were only made on rigid flat glass
substrates just like LCDs. But in 2013 Samsung introduced the Galaxy Round,
the first curved screen OLED display made using a flexible plastic substrate
that can bend. This allowed a number of innovative new screen geometries. The
most popular one is expanding the front main screen so that it extends around
to both the right and left sides of the phone by bending around the corners.
That provides two additional configurable display areas that can be viewed from
both the front or the sides, and even when the phone is placed face down.
Starting in 2014, both the Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Note have come in
both flat screen models and curved screen Edge models – but the latest Galaxy
Note7 only came with a curved screen. It seems likely that the Galaxy S8 will
also only come with a curved screen, so the flexible curve screen OLEDs have
now become the new Flagship displays.
While the OLED display itself is flexible, the screen remains rigid
under an outer hard cover glass that is hot formed into a rigid curved screen.
In the near future some Smartphones will offer bendable screens by switching to
a protective flexible plastic cover over the flexible OLED display.
The OLED Display Manufacturers
Samsung Display right
now has well over 95 percent market share for all in production Smartphones
that have OLED displays. There are now about two dozen Smartphone manufacturers
using OLED displays, so if you have a Smartphone with either a flat or curved
screen OLED display, it was almost certainly made by Samsung Display. OLED-info has a
list of all current OLED Smartphones, which in addition to Samsung includes
well known brands like Google, HP, HTC, Huawei, and Lenovo/Motorola. LG Display
also currently produces smaller flexible OLED displays, but only for watch
displays like the Apple Watch rather than for Smartphones.
With the rapidly
increasing demand for OLED Smartphone displays, a number of LCD display
manufacturers are starting OLED production lines for Smartphone displays, and
some could be shipping in significant volumes as soon as 2018. The interesting
question is which companies will be manufacturing OLED displays in sufficient
volume by then? Right now only Samsung and LG are manufacturing production OLED
displays in significant quantities. According to OLED-info and OLED Association, which track
developments in the OLED industry, the new OLED manufacturers include AU
Optronics, BOE Display, Everdisplay, Foxconn, JDI, Sharp, Truly, and Visionox.
A crucial issue is the long learning curve involved in being able to
produce very high quality OLED displays, particularly in very high volumes.
Samsung and LG have been perfecting their OLED technology for well over 5
years, so it remains to be seen which of the new OLED manufacturers will be
capable of supplying sufficiently high quality OLED Smartphone displays by
2018.
The Flagship 2017 OLED Smartphones
So at least for 2017, the
high-end top-tier OLED Smartphones will all be using similar OLED Smartphone
displays made by Samsung Display. However, that refers to just the OLED display
hardware – there is a tremendous amount of critical system software and
firmware that must be supplied in order to produce a versatile high function
and high performance and high quality Smartphone display.
It will be particularly interesting to see how all of the Smartphone
manufacturers will differentiate their similar OLED display hardware with
differing and innovative software and firmware, including multiple display
modes, high color accuracy, additional calibration settings and parameters,
unique display functions and features, and particularly their display user
interfaces to nicely integrate all of these display functions together. In the next section below we will examine some of these
important display functions.
For this article we are going to focus on the next
generation of 2017 OLED Smartphones from Samsung, Google, and Apple, making
some predictions and educated guesses based on their 2016 displays and the
latest OLED technology. Follow DisplayMate
on Twitter to learn about these developments and our upcoming display technology
coverage.
Samsung Galaxy
The new Galaxy S8 will launch in March or April of 2017.
While it will be the next generation of the Galaxy S7 that
we lab tested in February 2016, based on the trends over the last several years
its OLED display will almost certainly be an evolution and enhancement of the
outstanding Galaxy
Note7 display the we that we lab tested in August 2016. The Note7 suffered
a fatal battery flaw, but its OLED display was outstanding and received our Best
Smartphone Display Award.
The Galaxy Note7 was only available with a flexible OLED
curved screen, and it appears likely that the Galaxy S8 will also only come in
a curved screen model, so the flexible curve screen OLEDs have become the new
Flagship displays.
While the Galaxy S7 Color Gamut is
based on the Adobe RGB
Color Gamut, the most recent Galaxy Note7 Color Gamut
has a wider native DCI-P3 Color
Gamut, which is also used in 4K TVs. So it seems fairly certain that the
Galaxy S8 will also have a DCI-P3 Color Gamut. This is a major and important enhancement
that all of the other top tier manufacturers will need to match.
All of the recent Galaxy OLED Smartphones have supported multiple Color
Gamut Standards, including DCI-P3, Adobe RGB, and sRGB. In order to obtain high Color Accuracy the Display
Setting for the Screen Mode needs to match the Color Gamut for the content that
is being viewed. All of the reviewers that continue to rant about the poor
Color Accuracy of the Galaxy S7 have failed to set the proper Screen mode for
the content, which is very accurate as shown in our detailed Galaxy S7 Absolute Color
Accuracy lab measurements.
It appears likely that the curved screen Galaxy S8 will be bezel and
border free to the outside edges, and fill all or almost all of the entire
front view edge-to-edge, with rumors predicting that the home button,
fingerprint sensor, and navigations buttons will all be incorporated within the
display.
For a borderless edge-to-edge screen on the Galaxy S8, both the screen
shape and the screen resolution will need to change in order to maintain the
same or similar overall outer geometric form factor as the Galaxy S7, which has
an Aspect Ratio of 2.05, while its display has a resolution of 2560x1440 and an
Aspect Ratio of 1.78. So an educated guess is that the Galaxy S8 will have a
display Aspect Ratio of 2.0, with a resolution somewhere between 2880x1440 and
possibly as high as 3840x1920 or 4,320x2160, which would be 4K. A major
advantage of OLEDs is that their resolution and Pixels Per Inch PPI can be
increased relatively easily, unlike LCDs which suffer major performance
penalties.
The Peak Brightness for the OLED Galaxy Smartphones have been steadily
increasing, to over
1,000 nits for the Galaxy Note7, which is used in implementing the new HDR
High Dynamic Range modes and content, and for improved display performance in
ambient lighting.
In the next section below we will examine some of the more important
display functions that improve the overall performance of the OLED display
hardware.
Google Pixel
While Google has had
OLED displays on many of their previous Nexus models, they were all based on
Smartphones from HTC, Samsung, Motorola Mobility and Huawei. The Pixel is the
first Google branded Smartphone designed and made by Google, but it is
manufactured by HTC for Google in the same way that Foxconn manufacturers
iPhones for Apple. We have not lab tested the display on the Google Pixel.
The current Google
Pixel has a rigid OLED display that is similar to the flat screen Galaxy
S7 OLED, but with resolutions of 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 for the
larger XL model. It seems likely that the next Google Pixel 2 will stick with a
flat OLED display because of the large effort needed to implement all of the
custom software and content for the curved side screens.
The current Google
Pixel has a Color Gamut similar to the Galaxy S7 Color Gamut,
which is based on the Adobe RGB
Gamut. Google originally listed the Pixel Color Gamut Specs as “100% NTSC” which is not only technically incorrect,
but the NTSC
Gamut has also been obsolete for over 30 years and is very different from
the current Color Gamuts, so it is not a useful metric for current displays.
Google recently updated the Pixel
Color Gamut Specs to “95% of DCI-P3” and while
that is technically correct, it is a bit misleading because the Pixel Gamut is
actually an OLED Adobe RGB
Gamut that is missing the most important and more saturated Red Primary
portion of the DCI-P3 Gamut.
The next Google Pixel 2 will presumably have a true DCI-P3 Gamut like the
Galaxy Note7 (and most likely the Galaxy S8).
It will be interesting to see how the Pixel 2 will incorporate and
utilize the very high Peak Brightness of greater than 1,000 nits that the
latest OLED displays can produce, particularly for the new HDR High Dynamic
Range content, and for improved display performance in ambient lighting.
Most of the Google Pixel 2 OLED hardware display specs will be
undoubtedly be very similar to the OLED displays on Galaxy Note7 and
particularly the upcoming Galaxy S8. In the next section below we will examine
some of the more important display functions that improve the overall
performance of the OLED display hardware.
Apple iPhone
Up until now all of the iPhones have had LCD displays, including the
latest and best performing iPhone 7 that we
lab tested in September 2016. So, for the OLED iPhone 8 Apple will
need to merge the best of the iPhone and OLED technologies. Because OLEDs
perform very differently from LCDs, it will be very interesting to see how
Apple modifies, improves and adds new display functions for the OLED iPhone 8.
Most of the iPhone 8 OLED hardware display specs will undoubtedly be
very similar to the OLED displays on Galaxy Note7, and particularly the
upcoming Galaxy S8. In the next section below we will examine some of the more
important display functions that improve the overall performance of the OLED
display hardware.
It seems close to certain that the OLED iPhone 8 will have a curved
screen flexible OLED that will be similar to the most recent curved screen Galaxy
S7 Edge and Galaxy
Note7 displays. Not only does Apple have a reputation for including
high-end displays on their iPhones, but they also have a patent for curved
screen displays. The most interesting question are the functions and content
they will implement for the curved side screens, including an Always On mode.
With a curved screen OLED, the iPhone display will almost certainly be
bezel and border free to the outside edges, and fill all or almost all of the
entire front view edge-to-edge, with rumors predicting that the home button,
fingerprint sensor, ambient light and proximity sensors will be incorporated
within the display. The ear speaker could also be behind the display, but it
would be surprising to do that with the front facing camera for many optical
reasons.
The iPhone 7 Color Gamut
has the latest DCI-P3 wide Color Gamut that is also used in 4K TVs, so it seems
certain that the iPhone 8 will also have a DCI-P3 Color Gamut like the Galaxy
Note7 (and most likely the Galaxy S8). The iPhone 7 has automatic Color Management
that accurately reproduces content from any smaller Color Gamuts like sRGB, and
that will definitely continue on the iPhone 8.
In terms of pixel resolution, Apple has not strayed far from their 326
PPI Pixels Per Inch Retina Display introduced for the iPhone 4. The highest
iPhone PPI is for the recent Plus models, which have 401 PPI. For the iPhone 8
the PPI is unlikely to decrease below 326 PPI, so if the iPhone 8 maintains
roughly the same overall size as the iPhone 7, its edge-to-edge screen size
will be larger and the resolution will need to increase. The display Aspect
Ratio is then likely to increase to 2.0 from the current 1.78 in order to
maintain the same overall outer geometric form factor as the iPhone 7, so an
educated guess for the iPhone 8 resolution is somewhere between 2160x1080 and
2880x1440 pixels. The left and right side screens could add up to another 250
pixels to the total display width.
It will be interesting to see how the iPhone 8 will incorporate and
utilize the very high Peak Brightness of greater than 1,000 nits that the
latest OLED displays can produce, particularly for the new HDR High Dynamic
Range content, and for improved display performance in ambient lighting. In the
next section we will examine some of the more important display functions that improve the overall performance of the OLED
display hardware.
Advanced Display Functions and
Features on OLED Smartphones
So far we have been discussing
the OLED display hardware, but there is a tremendous amount of critical system
software and firmware that must be supplied in order to produce a versatile
high function and high performance and high quality Smartphone display.
It will be particularly
interesting to see how all the Smartphone manufacturers will differentiate their
similar OLED display hardware with differing and innovative software and
firmware, including display modes, high color accuracy, additional calibration
settings and parameters, unique display functions and features, and
particularly their display user interfaces to nicely integrate all of these
display functions together.
In this section we will
review some of the important display functions that
improve the overall performance of the OLED display hardware that we
have previously discussed in our public Display Technology Shoot-Out
article series. The links below provide some additional details:
● Display User
Interface and API Optimized for OLEDs – they are currently all based on LCDs.
● Display Power
Management Optimized specifically for OLEDs.
● Support for Multiple Color Gamuts
including sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3.
● Reducing the
display’s Blue Light for Watching Displays at
Night. Current implementations are primitive.
● Always
On Display functions and content.
● Support for 4K
TV content and HDR High
Dynamic Range content.
● Improved Absolute Color
Accuracy for all the Smartphone
Picture Mode Color Gamuts.
● Improved Absolute
Luminance Accuracy.
● Improved Absolute Image Contrast
Accuracy.
● Accurate and
adjustable White Points.
● Accurate and
adjustable Image Contrast and adjustable Vividness.
● Accurate and
adjustable Color Saturation and adjustable Vividness.
● Improved Adaptive
Automatic Brightness with dual
front and back Ambient Light Sensors.
● Improved Performance
in High Ambient Light with Dynamic Color Management
and Intensity Scales.
● Follow DisplayMate on Twitter to learn
about these developments and our upcoming display technology coverage.
About the Author
Dr. Raymond Soneira is
President of DisplayMate Technologies Corporation of Amherst, New Hampshire,
which produces display calibration, evaluation, and diagnostic products for
consumers, technicians, and manufacturers. See www.displaymate.com. He is a research
scientist with a career that spans physics, computer science, and television
system design. Dr. Soneira obtained his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from
Princeton University, spent 5 years as a Long-Term Member of the world famous
Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, another 5 years as a Principal
Investigator in the Computer Systems Research Laboratory at AT&T Bell
Laboratories, and has also designed, tested, and installed color television
broadcast equipment for the CBS Television Network Engineering and Development
Department. He has authored over 35 research articles in scientific journals in
physics and computer science, including Scientific American. If you have any
comments or questions about the article, you can contact him at dtso.info@displaymate.com.
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Article Links: Galaxy
Note7 OLED Display Technology Shoot-Out
Article Links: Galaxy S7
OLED Display Technology Shoot-Out
Article Links: iPhone 7 LCD
Display Technology Shoot-Out
Article Links: Display Technology Shoot-Out
Article Series Overview and Home Page
Copyright © 1990-2017 by DisplayMate
Technologies Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
This article, or any part
thereof, may not be copied, reproduced, mirrored, distributed or incorporated
into any other work without
the prior written permission of DisplayMate Technologies Corporation
