Update: turns out that I was wrong and Samsung did develop an OLED microdisplay, an XGA one back in 2011

The Korea Times claims that Google's next gen Google Glass HMD (or "wearable computer") will use OLED microdisplays made by Samsung Display. Or at least SDC made a proposal for Google to replace the current LCoS panels by its OLED displays. The current Google Glass prototypes use Himax' LCoS displays.

At SID 2013, SDC's CEO did mention OLED microdisplays on silicon during his keynote speech. He also says that these kinds of displays may be used for augmented-reality devices such as Google Glass. Last month Google's CEO Larry Page visited Samsung's OLED facilities, and apparently Page is "interested in Samsung's OLED business". So now the rumors are that Google are interested in small sized OLED displays.

Google's CEO Larry Page visited Samsung's OLED facilities, and apparently Page is "interested in Samsung's OLED business". According to some reports, the two companies may discuss a partnership on OLED TV panels, perhaps akin to Google's collaboration with LG on Google TV. Or it might be that Google are interested in introducing their own branded TV set, but I don't think it's likely they'll go for highly expensive OLED panels yet.

Samsung is already providing OLED panels to several Android smartphones, including ones made by Google's Motorola Mobility. Some reports suggest that Motorola's upcoming device, code named Google X, will sport an unbreakable OLED display. Google themselves has filed for several patents involving OLED technology (or actually software tailored for OLED panels).

Google was granted a new patent (filed in July 2013) that describes a technique for saving power on mobile devices with OLED displays. Basically the idea is that the when battery is low, the system can change the display characteristics (lower the resolution, disable animation and use red and black colors only). You can see the basic schema from the chart below, which is actually quite badly written: there's no option for a normal mode, and there's just one check and no loop as there should have been. Oh well...

This patent is only useful and valid for OLED displays. I'm not sure how canceling blur and animation actually conserve power on OLEDs. Showing just red and black colors make sense, and reducing the resolution also makes sense if they mean showing a small image with black around it. In September 2012 Google were granted a patent in which they suggest to reduce the image on a screen when the device is idle - this is basically the same idea which relies on the fact that black pixels on OLED displays do not draw power.

During Google's financial results conference call, the company's CEO Larry Page discussed the opportunities in mobile phones. The company bought Motorola Mobility and is expected to release new phones with new technology soon. Page hinted at unbreakable phones ("when you drop your phone, it shouldn't go splat") and said that battery life is still a huge issue. Hopefully Motorola will indeed incorporate unbreakable plastic-based OLED panels in their upcoming device (some say it'll be called Google X).

Curved YOUM prototype phone

Motorola already uses OLED panels in several of their mobile phones, including the relatively new RAZR i, RAZR HD and RAZR M. Most of these Motorola's OLED phone sport Super AMOLED Advanced displays, which are 25% more power efficient compared to other OLEDs (according to Motorola's marketing, anyway). This is probably due to the fact that Motorola's displays are one of the few Samsung OLEDs that use green phosphorescent emitters, and may be the reasoning behind Page's "battery life" comment.

Google unveiled their new tablet (the Nexus 10, made by Samsung) and phone (the Nexus 4, made by LG) - and both use LCDs (yeah, those OLED rumors were incorrect after all). The Nexus 10 uses a 10", 2560x1600 (300 ppi) "True RGB Real Stripe PLS" display (PLS stands for Plane to Line Switching, a Samsung-developed tech which is supposed to be brighter and with better viewing angles than IPS panels).

The Nexus 4 uses a 4.7" 1280x768 IPS display (probably made by LG Display). This is the first Google Nexus phone that does not have an AMOLED display. What a shame.

AUO had to delay AMOLED mass production to 2013, but the company is still developing the technology. Today they unveiled a new 4.65" AMOLED that features 317 ppi (so the resolution is probably around 1280x720). This is quite an improvement over AUO's current 4.3" qHD (257 ppi) panels.

AUO also unveiled some other new technologies today: A 4.46" LCD with the "World's thinnest bezel" at 1mm, New AHVA (Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle) panel technology and a 10" 2560x1600 IGZO based LCD aimed for tablets that is only 1.5mm thick. This is the size and resolution of Google's upcoming Nexus 10 tablet - and perhaps the new device will use this display and not a Super AMOLED as some leaks suggested. Update: the Nexus 10 is official, and it uses a PLS LCD...

Update: the Nexus 10 is official, and it uses a PLS LCD...

Google is planning to unveil new products on October 29th, and new rumors suggest that this will be a samsung-made Nexus 10 tablet, and it will sport a 10.1-inch Super AMOLED panel with a resolution of 2560×1600 (which means 298.9 ppi). If true, this will be the largest AMOLED panel produced by Samsung ever. Hopefully we'll know soon!

The rest of the specification, according to the leak: a 1.7Ghz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of memory and no expansion slot.

Motorola's RAZR i is now shipping - unlocked for $534. The RAZR i is an Android (v4.0) smartphone that's based on intel's Medfield Atom processor clocked at 2Ghz (single core with hyperthreading). Other features include 1Gb RAM, 8GB of internal memory, microSD slot, 8MP camera and an edge-to-edge 4.3" qHD (960x540) Super AMOLED Advanced display.

Google's Motorola announced two new smartphones today, both with OLED displays. The first is the Droid RAZR HD, an Android V4 smartphone with a large 4.7" 720p HD Super AMOLED display, a 1.5Ghz CPU, 8mp camera, 16GB of memory, NFC and a large 2,500mAh battery. There's also a Maxx version which has more memory (32GB) and a larger battery (and a slightly larger size of course). The Droid RAZR HD will launch towards the end of 2012.

The second phone is the RAZR M, an LTE smartphone that features a 4.3" qHD (960x540) Super AMOLED Advanced display, Gorilla Glass, dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM, 8mp camera and 8GM of storage memory (and a microSD slot). The RAZR M will ship in September 2012 for $99 on Verizon.

Google filed an interesting patent in 2012, in which they suggest to reduce the image on a screen when the device is idle. The idea is that when the user is not active, the display size is slowly reduced, until it is invisible. The patent specifically says that this is useful on OLED displays - as it would save power and still present a somewhat useful image to the user.