After spending a fortune on setting up new OLED display manufacturing facilities, Chinese display manufacturer BOE appears to be ready to take on the industry's top dogs, including Samsung Display and LG Display.
According to reports (via Business Korea), BOE unveiled a new OLED panel prototype at the Innovation Partner Conference (IPC) in Beijing, and the company claimed that this prototype display can achieve a higher color expression — even higher than Samsung's technologies.
Specifically, BOE's OLED panel prototype is said to cover 95% of the standard BT.2020 color gamut. In contrast, LG Display's W-OLED (White OLED) panels go as high as 70%, while Samsung Displays' QD-OLED panels can top 90%.
A better way to get back at Samsung
Tensions between Samsung Display and BOE have been high ever since Samsung tried to stop OLED display clone imports from China to the USA, and BOE took offense, even though its bitterness kind of confirmed in a round-about way that it cloned Samsung OLED panels without authorization and sold them to the USA through third parties.
In response to Samsung wanting to protect its intellectual properties, last year, BOE launched a barrage of lawsuits against numerous Samsung branches in China. Samsung fired back.
Now, BOE appears to have challenged Samsung Display through more meaningful and competitive means outside the legal route, and its technological achievements are worth taking note of, even if BOE won't push its 95% BT.2020 OLED display into production.
As mentioned, the OLED panel showcased at IPC was a prototype, and there is no official date on when it could enter production, if ever. Prototypes are in a league of their own, and we've seen Samsung Display showcase some seriously impressive technologies that have yet to reach the consumer market, such as stretchable micro-LED displays.
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Since last year, when BOE decided to invest three times the amount of money Samsung Display did in its 8.6-generation OLED display manufacturing facility, it appears to have narrowed the gap with the Korean tech giant.
Reports say that BOE has even joined Apple's OLED supply chain, next to Samsung, and will make OLED panels for the iPhone SE4. BOE has been trying for years to work for Apple but failed due to quality and durability concerns. However, BOE appears to have finally pulled it off and may be one of Apple's new iPhone panel suppliers, joining the industry two veterans, Samsung and LG.
