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 $500 (Note: link to Amazon.co.uk).
Nokia OLED research
Nokia was also engaged in high-end OLED research. In June 2014, for example, Japan's Semiconductor Energy Laboratory, in collaboration with Nokia unveiled a new foldable OLED display - see image below.
The latest Nokia OLED news:
TPO facing technical issues, delays AMOLED panel launch
A few weeks ago it was reported that Nokia are using two OLED panel suppliers - Samsung and TPO. Now we hear that TPO has some technical issues, and are not yet supplying panels to Nokia.
TPO plans to launch their first product later this year - a 3" (or a bit larger) WVGA panel for mobile phones. This panel is already in development. In 1H 2010 TPO will release a 3" VGA panel aimed for digital cameras, and in 2H 2010 a 4" WVGA panel for mobile phones.
LG Display to focus on larger OLED panels, to launch 30" TVs by 2012
LG Display's CEO, Kwon Young-soo, says that they will focus on OLED TV panels rather then smaller ones for mobile phones. Interestingly there are reports that LG are in talks with Nokia to supply smaller panels, so it's not clear which way LG are really headed.
LG 15-inch OLED TV prototypeLG Display plans to launch 30" OLED TVs in 2012. That's actually a delay - previously those TVs were planned for 2010. In a recent interview, LG claimed that they will launch 15" OLED TVs in Korea in December 2009.
Kwon Young-soo further said that LG plans to hire 1,700 employees for their R&D department, many of these will probably work on OLEDs.
LG Display to increase OLED production capacity, in talks with Nokia for an OLED supply deal
LG Displays are talking with Nokia to supply them with AMOLED displays. Currently Nokia has two main OLED suppliers - TPO and SMD. Nokia are using OLEDs in their N85 and N86 phones, and are looking to introduce OLEDs into more new phones.
Nokia N86
LG has invested 79M$ in AMOLED production lines, which will begin volume-production in 2H 2010. They have recently doubled their OLED research staff. Currently they have the capacity of 2.4M panels a year, which is not enough for Nokia.
Nokia N86 is now shipping
Nokia are now shipping the N86, globally, for around 525$ in europe (375EUR). TheN86 has a 2.6" AM OLED QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) with up to 16 million colors. It also has a 8Mp camera, 8Gb of storage, TV-out and other goodies.
Nokia N86The N86 is expected to cost 375 EUR (US$525) after taxes and subsidies.
Nokia to introduce several OLED handsets in 2009, use Samsung and TPO as suppliers
Digitimes reports that Nokia are optimistic about OLEDs, and plan to release more handsets with OLED displays in 2009. Currently Nokia ships the N85, that has a 2.6 AMOLED. We know of at least one more OLED phone that's coming soon, the N86.
Nokia N86Digitimes also say that the two OLED suppliers to Nokia are Samsung (SMD) and TPO, who started making OLEDs at the end of 2008.
The Nokia N86 with the 2.6" OLED is now official
Nokia has officially launched the N86, with the 2.6" OLED. It also includes a 8Mp camera, dual-LED flash, 8GB of storage, TV-out, microSD slot, Nokia Maps and Ovi integration. The phone will be released in Q2 2009 in Europe for 375euro (before subsidies).
Nokia N86
Engadget says that the Screen is considerably brighter than the iPhone's... They claim "another win for OLED!". They also posted a hands-on video.
Nokia to launch a new 2.6" AMOLED phone?
It is rumored that Nokia will soon (perhaps today) announce a new 8 megapixel phone, the N86. Beside the cool camera it will have dual-LED flash, Symbian S60 OS, 8GB of memory and a 2.7" OLED display.
We'll keep you updated of course...
ZDNet: The OLED on the Nokia N85 is 'fantastic'
Matthew Miller from ZDNet reviews the Nokia N85, and just loves the OLED display. He actually got it because of the OLED display, which he saw on the Samsung i770 (I then saw the OLED display on the Samsung I7710 S60 device and fell in love with the brightness and true colors).
Here's what Matthew said about the N85's OLED: As I said above and cannot keep saying, the OLED display looks
fantastic. The colors are bright and evenly lit with no side or
backlighting. The display is viewable for virtually any angle and looks
great in the dark and in direct sunlight.
Top OLED gadgets for the 2008 holiday season
So the 2008 holiday season is almost here - and obviously you'd like a new gadget with an OLED display. So what are your options?
OLED TV, photo frame and keyboard
The top choice will have to be Sony's XEL-1, the world's first OLED-TV. The 11" XEL-1 (960x540) is only 3mm thin. The contrast and colors are great. The only problem? it costs around 2,500$...
Our second choice is an OLED keyboard. Here you can customize the keys to your liking, this is very useful. Art.Lebedev's Optimus keyboard (where all the keys are OLEDs) costs 1,500$. There are cheaper options - like the 3-keyed Optimus-Mini, or UnitedKeys' new 260$ board (only has 9 OLED keys, though).
During 2008 the first OLED photo frames arrived. The top of the bunch is Kodak's 999$ wireless frame, which has a beautiful 7.6" panel. Digital Foci also sells smaller frames (up to 2.8") - which are much more reasonable priced.
OLED MP3 players, mobile phones or digital cameras?
Audio/Video players have sported OLED displays for years now. There are a few new players that have large AMOLED displays. We like Cowon's S9 Curve - with its 3.3" touchscreen AMOLED. The iRiver SPINN was recently released as well - this one has a 3.2" display (also touchscreen, by the way). If you want smaller players, there are literally dozens of models with OLEDs.
Mobile phones are the second largest OLED market. If you live in the US, the best option is Nokia's N85 with a 2.6" display. In korea and Japan there are many more phones from LG, KDDI, Samsung and others that has beautiful large OLEDs, most of them announced in the past few months.
Interestingly, if you want a digital camera with an OLED, you don't have many choices - even though It has been years since Kodak introduced the world's first camera with an OLED. There's Samsung NV24HD pocket camera, and some very high-end cameras with OLEDs, and that's that. Perhaps the fact that OLED displays currently are not too great in sunlight makes camera makers a bit hasitant to use them.
An OLED Lamp?
Finally, if you really want to impress your friends, you can get one of Ingo Maurer's OLED lamps. They will only make 25 of them, and we heard the price is 25,000euro...
Which OLED gadget would you like?
So, what will it be? We'd love to get your comments - tell us what is your favorite OLED gadget, and which one you'll be most happy to have these holidays.
Nanomarkets: the markets for OLED materials will reach $2.7 billion by 2015
After receiving investments totaling billions of dollars over the past decade, the OLED industry is finally poised to take off. According to NanoMarkets, an industry analyst firm based here, the markets for OLED materials will reach $2.7 billion by 2015.
Key Findings:
- The recent announcement by Nokia requiring its vendors to be capable of producing OLED displays is a strong indication that OLED technology is about ready for broader commercial production. GE Global Research's success with roll-to-roll production of OLED devices indicates that OLED lighting may result in greater near term production volume than displays. Sony meanwhile has launched the world's first OLED TV. The rise of lighting and television applications, in particular, are positive for materials suppliers, because these applications require large OLEDs and hence use much more material than the small cell phone and MP3 player displays that have until recently dominated the OLED space.
