What Display Daily thinks: Yeah, Apple is great. The iPhone is great. The iPhone display is pretty amazing. However, the margins between premium hardware from Apple and Samsung and the rest of the world have thinned out enough to be almost imperceptible. So, maybe BOE has to keep jumping through more hoops to get Apple’s business against Samsung and LG, but it makes no difference to the fact that it is enabling new generations of premium, home grown products that are perfectly capable of shutting out the competition.
It’s also the realization that given enough infrastructure and supporting display driving silicon, most smartphone manufacturers are getting better and better at reaching peak performance on their displays rendering any arguments about comparisons with the iPhone or Galaxy as moot. The field for premium displays across all smartphone market segments is wide open.
Maybe Samsung going bezel-less and addressing the challenges of under display cameras and sensors still talk to the complexity of the problems inherent in next-gen smartphone displays, and maybe Samsung is first to address the issues and build market presence and get market share. However, when Ross Young of DSCC pointed out an obvious mistake in an article that was written on this site about Chinese firms leading in foldables – the article had erroneously said that Chinese firms had been first with certain developments which were in fact attributable to Samsung – it made me think. First, about stupid editorial mistakes, but mostly about first mover advantage. It has some value in the display industry but not as much as you would expect.
The question is, do you want to spend money being first with next-gen display tech, or can you wait it out, and jump in when you can mass produce cost effectively and someone else has dealt with the teething pains? I mean, it is a capital intensive exercise in leadership, and even with noticeable increases in performance or benefit, the price curve takes a long time to arc downwards for increased volumes. And without volume, you have financial drain and anxiety as you look for ROI. Maybe the IP is worth it, but during a trade cold war Chinese firms, like BOE, have managed to consolidate their position and become competitive at the cutting edge, just falling into the grooves carved out by the first movers.
Is timiing everything in go to market strategies for display manufacturers? Maybe it’s just a matter of how long can you hold your breath before you dive into a rampant new display technology?
The OnePlus 12 Display Packs a Punch
The OnePlus 12 features a 6.82-inch screen developed in collaboration with BOE, known as the “Oriental Screen.” This display, a blend of BOE’s latest luminous materials combined with Oppo’s proprietary Display P1 chip and other self-developed technologies, boasts a resolution of 3168×1440 and a pixel density of 510PPI. It supports a 120Hz LTPO adaptive refresh rate technology, offering a display that is both crisp and smooth, a noticeable improvement over previous OnePlus screens.
In terms of display performance, the OnePlus 12 holds its own even compared to the iPhone 15 Pro, according to some early PR on the product. The company claims the phone has achieved DisplayMate’s highest A+ rating, with a peak brightness of 4500 nits and 1600 nits of typical brightness. The display’s low grayscale non-uniformity is 69.5%, and its reflectance is 4.0%. For color accuracy, the just noticeable color difference (JNCD) is around 3.5 and the Delta E is less than 0.69. This contributes to the display’s exceptional clarity.
The display also prioritizes eye protection, having received TÜV Rheinland’s highest level of eye comfort certification. It uses technologies like DC dimming, which adjusts brightness by altering the direct current, and a 2160Hz high-frequency pulse-width modulation (PWM) dimming solution. This minimizes flicker for eye comfort. The OnePlus 12 achieves a flicker visibility level (SVM) below 0.3, indicating very little perceptible flicker. The latest generation LTPO technology enables variable refresh rates on an per-app basis, ensuring smooth scrolling across applications. This updated LTPO reacts quicker while using less power.
The phone also packs an ultra-thin under-display fingerprint sensor for a more natural unlocking experience. Overall, the OnePlus 12’s display significantly advances display quality, eye protection, and smoothness – outperforming rivals with its high peak brightness and longevity. The announced display life expectancy is over double the industry average. The OnePlus 12 launches on December 5th, 2023 and if the display isn’t enough to catch your eye, the Hasselblad co-developed camera system is pretty cool, too.
