The iPhone 8, also dubbed as the iPhone X by some sources, will be having OLED displays manufactured by competing smartphone tech giant Samsung. But what could be the advantage of an OLED display over the traditional LCD display on major of devices?
The OLED (organic light emitting diode) is being used by Samsung for five years already, and they were able to develop the technology with utmost resources and quality. It is already present on their Galaxy S series and Galaxy Note series. Now Apple intends to level up the competition in smartphone displays by doing the same for their upcoming iPhone 8.
The iPhone X or iPhone 8 (speculations spread that an iPhone X may be the next flagship's name because of iPhone's 10th year anniversary, X being Roman numeral of 10) will be showcasing OLED displays produced by Samsung, since the Korean smartphone manufacturer and strongest competitor of Apple, is the only reasonable source of the displays.
On a Forbes report, Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies and a Ph.D. holder in theoretical physics from Princeton University gave insights regarding the advantage of OLED displays over the commonly used LCD screens. For one, Soneira says that with an OLED screen, Apple will be able to change the geometry and form factor of the iPhone 8.
Since OLEDs are flexible, the screen-to-body ratio of iPhone 8 will be much better, producing edge screens similar to Samsung S6 Edge and S7 Edge. It will also make it possible to produce curved screens. Color accuracy will also be better with an OLED screen, since they are much thinner, lighter, with a much smaller bezel. It also has faster response time and better viewing angles compared to LCDs.
OLED displays are electrically powered by individual sub-pixel, which makes it advantageous over LCDs that are too dependent on backlight technology. Seeing the iPhone 8 with an OLED screen will be a game-changer for Apple. Soon, the technology could be implemented for larger screens like iPads.
But why get OLEDs from Samsung, a direct competitor? Samsung is currently the leading manufacturer of OLEDs having 95 percent of the market share, FoxNews reports. With the demands Apple need for their devices, only Samsung has the technology and capability in doing so. In terms of quality, Samsung's very own could be better than what they will sell outside of its circle, but Apple will surely have something better in store for the iPhone 8 by the time it will be released later this year.
