The OLED Association has released news about a new 5.5″ AMOLED display presented to the organisation by Tianma. According to the article the new AMOLED display comes with full HD resolution, a first for any mobile OLED display made in China.
Source: OLED Association
The report claims that is has been difficult for OLED makers to achieve high pixel densities as required for FHD mobile displays. For example, a 5.5″ FHD display has a pixel density of 400ppi if the layout is based on a normal RGB pixel layout.
The current OLED production process is based on evaporation of materials through fine metal masks. The best masks are made by DNP and Toppan, which have exclusive contracts with Samsung and LG respectively. Tianma has started its own mask development to achieve high resolution panels. The report continues to say that Tianma is using a form of pentile pixel arrangement similar to Samsung. On the other hand the article does not mention when panels will be ready for manufacturing. The OLED-Info.com reports that Tianma plans to release these panels in 2016. It is not clear who provided this information though.
Analyst Comment
The announcement cannot be confirmed by any direct information from Tianma, but only through images and news by the OLED Association and OLED-Info.com. These organizations are certainly partial to OLED developments, but not necessarily to any one company. If we believe all information provided, it would mean that Tianma is getting closer to Samsung and LG in the OLED field, a field that was so far dominated by Korea and to a lesser degree by Japan.
It also hints that AMOLED displays have to rely on alternate pixel structures for now to keep up with LCD resolution capabilities. Sub pixel rendering as used by Samsung in the SAMOLED displays, is a way to create higher resolution images with lower sub-pixel densities as required in standard RGB pixel layouts.This comes down to the definition of resolution. So far we are used to counting the pixels per inch and calculating the resulting pixel density in ppi. Counting all pixels in both directions results in the resolution terminology we are used to as in HD or Full HD for example. Panels with sub pixel rendering rely on measuring the black and white line contrast instead.
The real question is how this will play out in the market. We have seen a fair share of great as well as mediocre AMOLED displays. DisplayMate has crowned the Samsung Galaxy S6 SAMOLED as the best smartphone display, while the iPhone 6 is ranked as the best LCD smartphone display. Both devices are being successful in the market, and as it seems neither display type is a hindrance in achieving market success. In the end it may come down to which display type can be made cheaper. A question to which many would like to know the answer. – NH
We reported on a 1280 x 720 5.5″ OLED from Tianma in our MWC 2015 report, although it also told us that it was 400ppi. The conflict between the two pieces of data didn’t register at the time! (Tianma Shows OLEDs and A-si Tablet Panels). We expect to get more information from Tianma at the forthcoming SID show. (BR)
