OLED Smartphones - introduction and industry news
What is an OLED display?
An OLED display uses a new technology called OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes). OLED screens are brighter, more efficient, thinner and feature better refresh rates and contrast than LCD or Plasma.
OLEDs are made by placing thin films of organic (carbon based) materials between two conductors. When an electrical current is applied, a bright light is emitted. Since the OLED materials emit light, a backlight is not required (unlike LCDs).
OLEDs in mobile phones
Mobile phones that boast OLED screens are rapidly becoming more prevalent, with over 500 million AMOLED screens annually - mostly to satisfy demand from mobile phones. Samsung has been using AMOLEDs in its high-end phones for many years, and most phone makers are also adopting OLED displays (including Apple, LG, Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Lenovo, Motorola, and others).
OLED displays are advancing quickly, and today smartphone AMOLED displays outperform LCDs in all parameters - except the price which is still at a premium.
Click here for our list of smartphones with AMOLED displays. Subscribe to OLED-Info Pro to access our complete list of OLED smartphones, with full information on the display types, producers, features and more.
Further reading
BOE shipped 13 million smartphone OLED panels to Apple in Q3 2026, starts verification tests to supply panels for the upcoming iPhone 18
According to UBI Research, in the third quarter of 2026, BOE shipped 13 million smartphone OLED panels to Apple, for the iPhone 14, 15, 16 and 17 series. BOE's B11 factory, which is mostly dedicated to Apple's products, has been operating lately at high capacity. We already heard a couple of months ago that Apple has increased its smartphone OLED orders from BOE, Samsung and LG.
UBI also says that BOE has been in talks with Apple regarding an OLED supply deal for the iPhone 18 - and the company is already producing samples and verifying its panels for Apple's supply chain.
Huawei launches the Mate 90 smartphone family, sporting the world's brightest display at 12,000 nits
Huawei announced its new flagship Mate 90 smartphone family. All three phone models sport high-end LTPO AMOLED displays, produced by BOE. The two higher-end modules utilize BOE's latest tandem-stack OLEDs, achieving a peak brightness of 12,000 nits - to claim the world's brightest smartphone display ever.
We'll start with the standard Mate 90, that offers a 6.75" 120Hz 1280x2832 LTPO AMOLED, protected by Huawei's latest Kunlun Glass 3.
Counterpoint: Chinese OLED material makers to increase their market share, and generate $603 million in revenues by 2030
According to Counterpoint (DSCC), Chinese material suppliers will increase their OLED material market share, and will capture 50% of the China market by 2028 (up from 43% in 2025), and will generate $603 million in revenues by 2030.
The China-based material makers will get a boost in 2028, when the new 8.6-Gen OLED fabs in China will begin full-scale production, and these fabs are expected to increase their adoption of locally produced materials.
HKC ships the first batch of flexible smartphone OLED panels produced at its H6 5.5-Gen line in Shenzhen
Samsung Display latest M16 OLED stack enable 2K 165Hz AMOLED panels, up to 10,000 nits brightness
Samsung Display announced its latest M16 OLED material stack, that enables the world's first 2K 165K smartphone AMOLED panel. The first M16 2K 165Hz panel will debut in the upcoming Vivo iQOO 16 gaming smartphone. The M16 stack supports peak brightness of up to 10,000 nits.
Samsung says that it has managed to reduce the power consumption by around 30% compared to its previous-generation smartphone AMOLEDs, even though it has increased the resolution from 1.5K to 2K.
Apple announces its first foldable iPhone, in addition to the iPhone 18 Pro and 2026 Watch lineups - all featuring LTPO AMOLED displays
Yesterday Apple launched several new products, all featuring high-end LTPO AMOLED displays. We'll start with the most interesting device, Apple's first foldable smartphone.
Apple's iPhone Duo features a 7.6" 120Hz 3,000 nits (peak) 1878x2670 foldable LTPO AMOLED display, plus an external 5.4" 120Hz 1398x2034 LTPO AMOLED. Both displays are produced by Samsung Display. The iPhone Duo will launch in October 2026, starting at $1999.
Samsung Display to increase its table and foldable OLED panel production to Apple in 2027 to 24 million units
According to a report from Korea, Apple is expected to increase its tablet OLED and foldable OLED panel orders from Samsung Display next year, from 10 million units in 2026 to 24 million units in 2027 - that's more than double in shipments. Samsung Display is already getting ready to increase its production capabilities for Apple.
The reports suggest that foldable OLED shipments will reach 8 million units in 2026, and 15 million units in 2027. Apple's iPad OLED shipments will grow from 2 million units in 2026 to 9 million units in 2027, that's over 4X growth in one year, as Apple is expanding the use of OLED displays across its iPad lineup.
Memory prices are hitting OLED volumes, not OLED design wins
The mood around AMOLED in 2026 has been gloomy, and with reason. Rising memory prices have squeezed handset bills of materials, the broader phone market is soft - analysts expect AMOLED smartphone shipments to decline around 7% in 2026, the first decline for AMOLEDs in many years.
Read quickly, that sounds like OLED losing ground. We wanted to check it against a different measure, so we counted new phone models announced each year since 2020 and split them by display technology - LCD against OLEDs. Not units shipped: models designed and launched. By that measure, 2026 has been another year of OLED gains.
Two measures, moving in opposite directions
OLED passed the halfway mark in new model launches in 2024 and has kept climbing since. In 2026 - through early September - it accounts for roughly 58% of new models, up from about a third in 2020. There is no stall in that curve, and certainly no reversal.
Reports suggest that Apple's iPhone Fold production is very limited due to the hinge component
As Apple gets ready to announce the first foldable iPhone later this week, Samsung Display has already started to mass produce foldable OLED panels to Apple's first foldable iPhone, at its Asan, Korea hub, while the modules are produced in its Vietnam's module factory. According to the reports, Apple's first order is for a total of 3 million displays that will ship in 2026. Samsung is the exclusive supplier of foldable panels to Apple, and Apple actually signed a 3-year exclusivity deal with SDC.
According to the latest news from Japan, Apple is facing technical issues, mainly with the production of the hinge component of the iPhone Fold (which could be named iPhone Ultra). In fact, this component is so challenging, that Apple's suppliers can only produce a few hundreds of units per day.
UBI: shipments of small AMOLED panels to increase to 1.46 billion in 2030, up 40% from 2026
UBI Research estimates that small AMOLED panel shipments will increase from 1.03 billion in 2026 to 1.46 billion in 2030, a CAGR of 8.9%. The main growth will come from the smartphone panel market, where OLED shipments will rise from 886 million in 2026 to 1.25 billion in 2030.
UBI sees the growth trend to accelerate in the second half of 2027, as by then memory supply, and prices, are expected to normalize.
