Chinese panel maker, BOE was at the show with its European business, Varitronix, which is long established in the European automotive business and was bought by BOE in May of this year to give the firm a quick entry into the automotive field. The first display we looked at was a 12.3″ curved “free form” display that has been generating, apparently, a “strong interest” from car makers as their designers want to get away from simple rectangles. Resolution is 1920 x 720 (166 ppi) and brightness is 1,000cd/m² and colour gamut is quoted as 85% (although we couldn’t be sure this was of NTSC). The radius of curvature is 700mm and the operating temperature range is quoted as being from -30 deg C to 85 deg C.
The Varitronix free form display was getting “strong interest”. Image:Meko
Varitronix was showing gesture recognition that was designed to allow up, down, left, right and hover motions to be tracked.
The next display we looked at was a 15.6″ FullHD unit that features in-cell touch that scans at 120Hz and is have an SNR of 40db. The panel is under development and commercial availability will depend on projects that develop.
Also on display was a 4.8″ flexible OLED made by BOE for wearables and other applications. The substrate is based on LTPS and the resolution is 480 x 800 (194ppi) while brightness is quoted at 200 cd/m² and contrast at >10,000:1. The panel is said to be rollable down to a 10mm radius and the panel is 0.13mm thick. Colour gamut is wide at 120% of NTSC and the panel was described as “under development”.
Varitronix showed this flexible display. Image:Meko
Next for us to see was a 21.5″ FullHD monitor panel with 250 cd/m² of brightness and with a ‘borderless’ design of 3.7mm (L/R/U) and 7.2mm along the bottom. The panel was described as being “under development”.
BOE’s narrow bezel monitor panel is under development. Image:Meko
At Display Monitor, we like pixels, so we were pleased to see a new 2.8″ UltraHD panel from BOE with 1600 ppi (!) and built on an LTPS substrate. Brightness is 400 cd/m² and colour is said to be 100% of NTSC. The display has borders of just 0.8mm (L/R) and 0.9mm (U/D) using GOA technology. As with the other panels shown, this was a development product, but we can image its use in head mounted applications. Unfortunately, our image didn’t come out well.
Still in the high resolution area, there was a 5.5″ UltraHD panel for smartphones that uses a “Bright View” BV3 technology. PPI comes out at 806 and brightness is quoted at 500 cd/m² with 1,500:1 contrast. Colour gamut is quoted at 92% of NTSC. The border is very narrow at 0.7mm.
BOE’s smartphone display has a narrow bezel. Image:Meko
As well as these panels, Varitronix was showing circular displays and transparent displays that could be used as low end HUDs. Finally, we looked at a 32″ HDReady transparent panel being used in a refrigerator.
This BOE transparent display is for entry level HUDs Image:Meko
