Samsung Display Develops World's First '2K·165Hz' Smartphone OLED

[Financial News] Samsung Display is set to unveil the world's first organic light-emitting diode (OLED) for smartphones to combine 2K resolution with a 165Hz refresh rate.
Samsung Display said on the 14th that it developed a 6.9-inch 2K·165Hz OLED and will supply it for the 'iQOO 16,' a gaming smartphone set to be launched this month by iQOO, Vivo's premium brand.
The new product offers higher resolution and approximately 30% lower screen power consumption than the recently launched 1.5K·165Hz smartphone OLED. Its maximum brightness is 2,800 nits in high-brightness mode, while it can reach up to 10,000 nits when the operating pixel ratio (OPR)—the proportion of active pixels among all pixels—is 1%.
As high-end mobile games and high-definition content become more widespread, demand is growing for smartphones with high resolution and fast screen-transition performance. However, higher resolution and refresh rates increase the number of pixels to be processed and the required driving circuitry, making it difficult to secure both brightness and power efficiency. To achieve a 165Hz refresh rate at 2K resolution, the screen must be refreshed approximately every 6 milliseconds (ms).
Samsung Display overcame these limitations by optimizing technologies related to driving, light emission, and image quality. It increased the thickness of the pixel-signal wiring by 10% compared with existing products, reducing current resistance and accelerating pixel charging. For the display driver IC (DDIC), it adopted a 22-nanometer (nm) process, which is finer than the existing 28nm process, reducing processing power consumption by approximately 30%.
The company also applied the latest organic materials and 'LEAD,' a non-polarizer OLED technology. It further incorporated three years of accumulated AI-based image-quality optimization technology, raising brightness and color uniformity, it explained.
Ho-joong Lee, vice president and head of the Product Planning Team at Samsung Display, said, "We concentrated our OLED expertise to achieve high resolution, a high refresh rate, high brightness, and power efficiency simultaneously. Based on our OLED competitiveness optimized for high-end gaming, we will strengthen our technological leadership in the premium smartphone market."

[email protected] Ji-yeon Park Reporter