Gaming

Samsung Display is showcasing a new laptop OLED panel, that is 20% thinner compared to Samsung's currently produced laptop AMOLEDs.

The company says it has achieved this slimmer design by etching both the Thin Film Transistor (TFT) substrate glass and the encapsulation glass to reduce their thickness by more than 30%, while also using its proprietary process know-how to resolve the potential warping that can occur when panels become thinner. 

In February, Valve announced that it is facing challenges in its memory supply chain, and stopped orders for its Steam Deck OLED gaming console, This was a good example of how rising memory prices harm supply chains, and also cause vendors to opt for lower-cost LCDs over OLEDs to offset the cost.

The company now announced that the Steam Deck OLED console are officially back in stock - but with a substantial price increase. The entry-level 512GB model, for example went up from $549 to $789. Valve stated that "these new prices reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole".

As the memory industry is facing a sharp chip shortage and increased prices, this has implications for the OLED industry. One example is the fact that smartphone makers may opt for lower-cost LCDs over OLEDs in some devices to offset the cost, and another is that some vendors are suspending device sales due to the high prices.

Last month Valve announced it is facing challenges in its memory supply chain, and customers cannot order its Steam Deck OLED gaming console. Today we have heard that Ayaneo, another gaming console maker, that has suspended the pre-orders to its Next 2 OLED gaming console.

Lenovo is demonstrating a nice new folding gaming handheld concept, the Lenovo Legion Go Fold Concept. This one uses a 11.6" foldable AMOLED display (produced by BOE), that folds-in to become a 7.7" panel when closed. 

The gaming console has several screen orientation configuration, and can also be used like a laptop and be attached to a wireless keyboard. This is just a concept device, at this stage.

In recent weeks we have started hearing that the global memory chip shortage may have implications for the OLED industry. One example was Omdia's forecast that as memory prices are rising sharply, smartphone makers will opt for lower-cost LCDs over OLEDs in some devices to offset the cost, and so OLED smartphone panel shipments will drop slightly in 2026.

A couple of days ago, Valve announced that it is facing challenges in its memory supply chain, and so its Steam Deck OLED gaming console will only be available in some regions, and some US buyers haven't been able to order it.

According to a leaked roadmap, Samsung Electronics is rumored to release a gaming monitor based on an WOLED panel in June 2026. There's even a model number, S27HG702WC. The leak says that this will be a 27" 4K 165Hz panel, that will also support 330 Hz in FHD mode.

 The same leak, that you can see above, also shows 3 more monitors that Samsung Electronics will release in 2026, all based on SDC's QD-OLED panels.

TrendForce says 644,000 OLED monitors shipped in Q3 2025, rising 65% from Q3 2024 (and up 12% from the previous quarter). Total shipments in 2025 are excepted to reach 2.6 million units, up 84% from 2024. TrendForce has increased its forecast slightly from its earlier one issued in May 2025.

According to TrendForce, ASUS surpassed Samsung to lead the OLED monitor market, with a 21.9% market share. TrendForce says that ASUS launched a wide range of OLED monitors, for both gamers and creators, targeting both the midrange and high-end parts of the monitor markets. 

A YouTuber called Monitors Unboxed, launch an extensive OLED burn-in test 18 months ago, to check the MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED monitor. After this long 4,500 hours deliberate testing, the results are shared in the video below.

First of all, it's important to note that these tests do not represent real gaming or work image patterns - showing only (or 95%, to be honest) static images is the worst-case scenario for OLED image retention. In any case, the YouTube says that after about 12 months, the monitor is just beginning to show some 'annoying' burn in. After 15 months - "there's been a noticeable increase in the visibility of the main artefacts in uniform dark grey test images," though only a small change.

In January 2025, LG Display  unveiled its 4th-Gen OLED large-area (WOLED) panel technology, that is able to deliver up to 4,000 nits of brightness, using a new stack structure that has two layers of blue emitters and two more layers, one with red emitters and one with green emitters. LGD refers to this architecture as a "Primary RGB Tandem structure".

Today LG Display announced that it has started to mass produce OLED gaming monitors based on the 4th-Gen WOLED panel technology. LGD's first panel is a 27-inch 280Hz panel that delivers a peak brightness of 1,500 nits (quite lower than the potential 4,000 nits that its 4th-Gen technology enables). LG says that this panel offers the highest color reproduction rate among existing OLED panels (99.5%).

China-based SDC (Super Display Co., not to be confused with Samsung Display) says it will soon launch a new OLED gaming monitor, called the Flash 540-Meta, that will be based on a 26.5" 2560x1440 LG WOLED panel (4th Gen). Interestingly, the company says the monitor will support up refresh rates of up to 720Hz - LG Display's panel supports up to 480hz. This is a dual-model panel,normally the 480Hz mode reduces the resolution to Full-HD.

The company did not yet disclose the release date or price of the new monitor.