LG Display returns to profit as OLED smartphone and TV shipments increase

LG Display announced its financial results for Q4 2023, with an operating profit of almost $100 million - after 7 quarters of losses. LGD says that demand for both its smartphone displays and WOLED panels (TVs and monitors) has increased. OLED revenues amounted to 57% of the company's total revenues during the quarter. 

LG Display says that it expects market volatility to continue in 2024, due to prolonged unstable macroeconomic conditions. The company will be "strengthening the competitiveness of its OLED businesses", and it expects OLED panel shipments to grow 20% in 2024 compared to 2023. In the upcoming Q1 2024 quarter analysts expected earnings to weaken due to low seasonal demand.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 25,2024

Samsung and LG begin producing 11" and 13" tandem LTPO AMOLED displays for Apple's iPads

Reports from Korea suggest that Samsung Display and LG Display are starting to produce AMOLED displays for Apple's future iPads, to be announced later this year. Samsung is set to produce 11" LTPO AMOLED displays, while LG Display is producing displays for the 13" model (but LGD will also produce 11" AMOLEDs in the future for Apple). 

Apple iPad (8th-Gen)

The Elec says that both Korean makers developer 11" and 13" displays, but for some unknown reason only LGD will produce the 13" displays. This could change in the future, of course. One reason could be that LG Display has more experience with tandem OLED architectures (developed originally by LGD years ago for automotive OLEDs).

Read the full story Posted: Jan 18,2024

Samsung unveils its 2024 OLED TV lineup

Samsung Electronics announced its 2024 OLED TV lineup, with 3 series. The company's flagship OLED TV for 2024, the S95D, offers 55-, 65-, or 77-inch 4K 144hz QD-OLED panels, offering high brightness (up to 3000 nits peak brightness), a new anti-glare coating to minimize reflections, Tizen 8.0 OS, and an external One Connect box for a sleek design. The S95D offers AI-Enhanced color accuracy - validated by Pantone.

Samsung S95D photo

Samsung also announced two more series - S90D and S85D. Interestingly, it did not detail whether these TVs use QD-OLED (produced by SDC) or WOLED panels (produced by LGD) - or a mix as it did last year within the same series. 

Read the full story Posted: Jan 11,2024

LGD announces its 2nd-Gen MLA META technology, achieving 3000 nits peak brightness

LG Display announced that it has developed its 2nd generation Multi-Lens Array (MLA) technology, branded as META Technology 2.0.  The company demonstrated a 83" META 2.0 OLED TV panel, during CES 2023. The company will apply this technology to several of its 2024 OLED TVs, ranging in size from 55-inch to 88". 

META 2.0 WOLED panels achieve a peak brightness of 3,000 nits - a 42% improvement over the company's conventional panels. LGD explains that META 2.0 includes a pattern of optimized micrometer-scale lenses with an optimized lens angle, an upgraded "brightness enhancing algorithm" called META Multi Booster, and a full-range brightness detail enhancing algorithm called Detail Enhancer. All of these new technologies, combined, makes for a META 2.0 panel. In a 77-inch 4K panel, there are 42.4 billion micro lenses (!).

Read the full story Posted: Jan 11,2024

LG Display to start producing a 480Hz QHD OLED gaming monitor panel

LG Display announced that it has successfully developed a 27-inch 480Hz QHD (2560x1440) Gaming OLED display, a world first. The panel offers a 0.03 ms response time, that together with the ultra-fast refresh rate, makes it optimal for gaming. LGD's new panel also implements the company's Micro-Lens Array (MLA) technology to enhance light output. 

LGD says that it will start producing this new panel in the first half of 2024. The company's 2024 gaming OLED monitor lineup will include panels in sizes 27, 31.5, 34, 39, and 45 inches.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 04,2024

LG Labs suggests putting a transparent OLED display in front of a vacuum tube audio device

LG Labs (Korea's experimental product marketing unit) announced a new design, called the LG DukeBox, which is an "innovative" audio product that combines vacuum tube audio with a transparent OLED display that covers it. The OLED can be used to mimic a glass box, or a fireplace, or to show actual content such as movies.

This is a weird, but maybe quite lovely, concept. LG is not likely to actually commercialize this, but it is always good to know that the company is looking for potential applications for its transparent OLED displays. 

Read the full story Posted: Jan 03,2024

LG Electronics announces its 2024 OLED TV range

LG Electronics formally announced it latest OLED TV, its 2024 range. The company introduced several new features: 144Hz refresh rate on most of the models, a new image processor and Chromecast support. LG did not yet disclose the pricing or shipping dates for the 2024 OLED TVs.

The 2024 OLED TV range starts with the OLED B4 series (no 60Hz A series this year), that offers 48-, 55-, 65-, and 77-inch options, 120Hz 4K resolution, an Alpha 8 image processor, webOS 24 and built-in Chromecast. The OLED C4 improves over the B4 with 144Hz refresh rates an Alpha 9 Gen-7 image processor. The C4 is available in 42-, 48-, 55-, 65-, 77- and 83-inch options.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 03,2024

LG Display aims to expand the use of deuterated OLED compounds

In 2021, LG Display started to adopt deuterated OLED compounds in its WOLED panels, to improve the lifetime, efficiency and brightness. Today, all of LG's WOLED TV panels use deuterated blue OLED emitters, in which hydrogen is replaced by its more stable isotope, deuterium. The higher stability enables longer lifetime, which in turn enables higher brightness and efficiency.

LG Display OLED EX Technology photo

It is now reported in Korea that LG Display now aims to expand the adoption of deuterated OLED compounds to its red and green and yellow emitters, and also other layers in the OLED stack. If this report is true, it means that LGD will also use the technology in its mobile (p-OLED) panels, not just its OLED TV ones. 

Read the full story Posted: Dec 26,2023

Seoul's subway tests a new translation service with transparent OLED displays

Seoul's Metropolitan Government has initiated a new pilot test at Myeong-dong Station that offers an AI-powered translation service for tourists that enables them to communicate with the subway staff through a transparent OLED display that shows relevant information during the conversation. The service supports 13 languages and aims to enable tourists to quickly and accurately receive information about the subway.

The transparent OLED display is a 55-inch OLED produced by LG Display. The pilot test will run for four months, currently at just one station. If the pilot is successful, it will be expanded to five stations in Seoul. 

Read the full story Posted: Dec 05,2023