Nokia was once the world's leading mobile phone company. They were late to the smartphone revolution, and the company's mobile phone arm was sold in 2013 to Microsoft. The Nokia phone brand was sold by Microsoft in 2016 to HMD Global, a new company founded by ex-Nokia executives.
Nokia's first OLED phone
Back in 2006, Nokia introduced the 6215i phone that was actually a re-branded clamshell Pantech PN-315 handset, for the Verizon network in the US. The phone had a 65K, 97x64 PMOLED subdisplay.
Nokia AMOLED phones - past and present
In its Symbian days, before the rise of the modern smartphone, Nokia released several AMOLED Symbian phones to the market - such as the N85 and the N86, the N8 and the E7 and the C7. In most of these AMOLED phones, Nokia used their ClearBlack Display technology (CBD) - which adds a polarized filter to the AMOLED and is said to deliver better outdoor visibility.
Nokia N86When Nokia abandoned Symbian in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone OS, they continued to use OLED displays in most of their phones - the latest one was the Lumia 930, the flagship 2014 Windows Phone 8.1 smartphone. The Lumia 930 has a 5" Full-HD Super AMOLED ClearBlack display, a 2.2 Ghz quad core CPU, 20 MP PureView camera (with optical image stabilization), Qi wireless charging and NFC.
HMD Global, who now owns the global Nokia smartphone brand, has released several new smartphones - one example was the Nokia 8 Sirocco in February 2018 - with its flexible (edge-type) 5.5" 1440x2560 (534 PPI) P-OLED display - reportedly made by LG Display. In 2022 the company announced the X30 Android smartphone, with a 6.43" 90Hz 1080x2400 AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chipset, 6/8 GB of RAM, 128/256 GB of storage and a dual camera setup. The X30 is shipping, starting at around $500 (Note: link to Amazon.co.uk).
Nokia OLED research
Nokia was also engaged in high-end OLED research. In June 2014, for example, Japan's Semiconductor Energy Laboratory, in collaboration with Nokia unveiled a new foldable OLED display - see image below.
The latest Nokia OLED news:
Nokia to buy AMOLED panels from LG Display
LG Display plans to restart making small AMOLED displays in the first half of 2011 (in 4.5-Gen lines with a $225 million investment) and today we hear that one of LGD's customers will be Nokia. LG Display also wants to introduce new OLED TV panels in 2012 - as they see demand for OLED TVs starting in 2013.
Nokia delays the Clear-Black-AMOLED packing E7 to "early 2011"
Nokia's E7 was supposed to start shipping on December 10th, but now it is delayed till 'early 2011'. The E7 is a QWERTY slider running Symbian^3 and has a 4" Clear-Black AMOLED (640x360) display.
Rumors start about a new Nokia N9 with a 4.2" AMOLED
Another week, new phone rumors. This time we hear that the Nokia N9 will be a fast (190M polygons/s - the N8 supports only 35M/s) MeeGo device with 12mp camera, 1GB ROM, 190M polygons/s. And the display? a 4.2" AMOLED - with no information on resolution and whether CBD or not.
Back in August we heard that the N9 will have a 4" Super-AMOLED display, but things might have changed since then...
Nokia X7 leaked, to have a 4" CBD AMOLED?
Nokia is said to be working on a new game- and audio-centric phone, the X7. The leaked specs include a 4" AMOLED display, the same one as in the E7 (so this might be a Clear Black Display). Other specs include a 8mp camera, Symbian^3 and four speakers.
Nokia E7 to start shipping on December 10th
Update: The E7 has been delayed till 'early 2011'
Nokia has announced today (on Twitter) that the E7 will start shipping next month (December 10th). The E7 is a QWERTY slider running Symbian^3 and has a 4" Clear-Black AMOLED (640x360) display. Other specs include a 8mp camera (720p video), 16MB flash memory, W-Fi and GPS.
Nokia's C6-01 phone starts shipping today, the first CBD device
Nokia announced today that are now shipping the C6-01 phone. The C6-01 is the first phone that uses Nokia's new ClearBlack-Display technology: which is an AMOLED display with a polarized filter that helps it perform better outdoors. The C6-01 has a 3.2" (640x360) display.
Other features of the C6-01 include Symbian^3, 8mp camera that can record 720p video, Wi-Fi and A-GPS.
Nokia sees shortage in AMOLED displays
According to a recent article, Nokia has reported shortage in AMOLED displays. This is not surprising as we know that Samsung (the only AMOLED maker) cannot meet customer demand, and Nokia has AMOLED displays in several new models (the N8, E7, C6 and the C7).
Nokia E7
The Nokia C7 is now available unlocked in the US for $549
Nokia's C7 is now available unlocked in the US for $549. The C7 runs on Symbian^3, and has a 3.5" AMOLED
display and a 8mp camera that can record 720p video. Other features include 8GB of memory, GPS and Wi-Fi.
iSupply: The 3.5" AMOLED in the Nokia N8 costs $39.25 (including the touch overlay)
iSupply has performed a teardown of Nokia's N8, and they say that the most expensive part is the display which costs $39.25. This includes the 3.5" AMOLED and the touch overlay. The whole phone costs $187.47 to build (and it costs $549 to buy unlocked...). The AMOLED is made by Samsung of course, while the touch layer is made by Synaptics.
Back in July, iSupply estimated that the 3.7" AMOLED in the Droid Incredible costs $31.2. We're not sure if that included the touch overlay, but in any case it's strange - the price has changed considerably. Perhaps Samsung is now charging higher prices for AMOLEDs...
