The first monitors with Samsung's QD-OLED technology offer 34 inches in UltraWide format 21:9. But soon there could also be 27-inch models (in 16:9?). According to a report from South Korea, Samsung Display is considering manufacturing such panels in its new A5 display factory.
After Samsung's display subsidiary finally turned its back on the no longer lucrative LCD business, it's now full speed ahead in the direction of OLED displays. To be more precise, it is QD-OLED technology, which combines organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) and quantum dots (QD). Blue OLEDs serve as a light source (backlight). A matrix of quantum dots serves as a color filter and ensures that red, green and blue sub-pixels are created. According to Samsung, this offers advantages in terms of brightness, color range and viewing angle stability compared to panels with white OLEDs (WOLED).
First QD OLED monitors with UWQHD to 34 inches
The first monitor with a QD OLED panel did not come from the parent company Samsung, but from Dell in the form of the Alienware AW3423DW (test). In the meantime, however, Samsung has also presented its own counterpart with the Odyssey OLED G8. Other buyers are MSI (MEG 342C) and Philips (Evnia 34M2C8600).
They all have a QD OLED panel with 3,440 × 1,440 pixels in 21:9 format in common on a diagonal of 34 inches, which is specified with a 0.1 ms response time and 175 Hz.
27-inch QD OLED panels (for Apple)
As the Flatpanels HD website reports, citing a report by the South Korean newspaper The Elec, there could soon be a smaller alternative. At a seminar in Seoul, the CEO of the market research company UBI Research explained that Samsung Display intends to produce primarily QD OLED panels for use in 27-inch monitors in its upcoming A5 factory. It goes on to say that Apple will be the largest customer.
With a diagonal of 27 inches, only the classic 16:9 format comes into question according to the usual standards. Most 27″ monitors currently offer resolutions from Full HD (1,920 × 1,080) through WQHD (2,560 × 1,440) to 4K UHD (3,840 × 2,160). In view of previous Apple products, however, even more pixels are conceivable. The latest Apple Studio Display (test) even uses a 5K resolution (5,120 × 2,880) on 27 inches, but is still based on LCD technology.
New OLED factory still not finished
But first the new QD-OLED factory has to be finished. Samsung had meanwhile paused construction work on the A5 due to low demand and strong competition from China.
A customer like Apple should be enough reason to start work again. Samsung Display is expected to supply OLED panels for Apple tablets (iPad) and notebooks (MacBook) in the future. However, Apple is not expected to switch from LCD to OLED before 2024.