Pentile

TCL CSOT is hosting its own Global Display Tech-Ecosystem Conference (DTC 2025) in Suzhou, China, showcasing its latest next-generation display technologies, panels and prototypes.

First, TCL is showing the world's highest PPI Real-RGB G-OLED display, at 1,512 PPI. This is a 2.56" panel with a resolution of 2560x2740, offering a 120Hz refresh rate and a wide color gamut. TCL targets XR (VR) devices for this display. A couple of months ago Xiaomi announced its 17 Pro Max flagship smartphone, that featured TCL's 6.9" 1200x2608 120Hz 3,500 nits LTPO Real-RGB AMOLED (and also a secondary 2.9" 596x976 LTPO AMOLED back screen). TCL says that its Real-RGB architecture not only increases actual resolution and increases production yields, but it also reduces the power consumption by 26%.

Xiaomi just announces its latest flagship smartphone, the 17 Pro Max, with a 6.9" 1200x2608 120Hz 3,500 nits LTPO AMOLED (and also a secondary 2.9" 596x976 LTPO AMOLED back screen).

These displays are produced by TCL CSOT, that unveiled that the 6.9" AMOLED uses TCL's Real RGB subpixel design for the first time. This architecture uses full 3 subpixels, red, green and blue, for each pixel. TCL says that it not only increases actual resolution and increases production yields, but it also reduces the power consumption by 26%.

A new report from China suggests that TCL CSOT is gearing up to start producing inkjet printed smartphone OLED panels in September. TCL brands these panels as Real OLEDs as they contain a full RGB subpixel structure. It is said that the first products to utilize these new displays are Xiaomi's 16 Pro and Redmi K90 Pro smartphones.

The reports says that these new panels will offer a 2K resolution, or 2048 x 1080 (which is actually a downgrade from the Xiaomi 15 Pro resolution). If we assume a 6.7" display size, this translates to a PPI of 345. Last month CSOT demonstrated 326 PPI inkjet printed smartphone panels.

Samsung announced three new Samsung Galaxy phones, in its popular mid-range A-series. First up is the Galaxy A33 which features a 6.4" 90Hz 1080x2400 Super AMOLED display, and the second is the Galaxy A53 which features a larger 6.5" 120Hz 1080x2400 Super AMOLED display.

Most interesting is the Galaxy A73,which sports a 6.7" 120Hz 1080x2400 Super AMOLED+. It is not clear what Samsung refers to as a Super AMOLED+, it could be a non-pentile display like the old Super AMOLED Plus displays.

A few days ago Nintendo started shipping its anticipated Switch OLED gaming console, with its 7-inch 1280x720 OLED display. The console costs $349.99, and initial reviews find the display to be an excellent improvement over the LCD used in the previous model.

This is an interesting sub-pixel structure, quite similar to the one used by the Apple Watch - and also to Samsung's S-Stripe displays (for example the one used in the Galaxy Note II). This is not Samsung's standard architecture for mobile devices, the Pentile display (or Diamond Pixel structure).

Tianme had an large booth in SID, showcasing many display technologies and demonstrating its latest LCD and OLED panels. Tianma started producing rigid and flexible OLEDS in April 2017 at the company's 6-Gen fab in Wuhan, and at SID the company demonstrated its 5.5" on-cell rigid AMOLEDs now in production. Tianma told us that this display was adopted in smartphones by Lenovo and Asus.

Tianma also demonstrated several flexible OLEDs in many configurations which we will list below. Almost all of the panels were based on the same basic display - a flexible 5.99" WQHD 1440x2280 (537.5 PPI) AMOLED produced on a polyimide substrate. Tianma showed this panel in a regular design, and also in a notch-type design.

Samsung introduced the Diamond Pixel display architecture back in 2013 when it launched the Galaxy S4 smartphone, and since then it has adopted this sub-pixel scheme in all of its OLED displays (replacing the previous PenTile scheme).

The 2014 Galaxy S5 introduced a different Diamond Pixel scheme which Samsung uses till today. DisplayMate tested the Apple iPhone X and it turns out that Apple's OLED, even though it is produced by Samsung Display, uses a slightly different Diamond Pixels - the fill factor of Apple's display is higher than in the Galaxy phones. You can see the two different displays in the macro photos above (courtesy of Display Mate). The iPhone X OLED is on the left, while the right shows the Galaxy OLED.

Samsung started shipping its Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ phones in Korea, and some of the first customers are complaining that the display have a reddish tint - which did not go away even after correcting the color display settings. This issues was quickly labeled as "Red Gate"... will Samsung face a new crisis?

Samsung itself says that there are no quality issues - and that the problem can be adjusted. Customers are welcome to replace their device, though, at service centers in Korea.

Samsung Display developed a new high-resolution OLED display, specifically for VR applications. The 5.5" panel, on display at SID DisplayWeek, sported a 3840x2160 resolution - or 806 PPI. The panel offered a brightness of 350 nits and a color gamut of 97% adobe RGB.

This is the highest resolution mobile phone sized OLED ever demonstrated, and it exactly matches the highest resolution LCD - Sharp's 5.5" 806 PPI IGZO panel unveiled in 2015. Samsung's display probably uses some sort of PenTile architecture, though, so actual sub-pixel count is smaller.

eMagin, the OLED microdisplay maker, reported their financial results for Q3 2015. Revenues were $5.4 million - down from $7 million in Q2 2015 due to a decrease in both product sales and R&D contract revenue. Net loss was $2.2 million, and eMagin currently has $5.1 million in cash and equivalents.

An eMagin OLED microdisplay

eMagin decreased its revenue guidance for 2015 and now anticipates annual revenues of $24 million or above. A couple of months ago eMagin has entered into an agreement with Craig-Hallum Capital Group that will allow them to raise up to $4.5 million.