Samsung offering Apple bright micro-lens displays for better iPhone 16 battery life
The two OLED display giaints - Samsung and LG - have reportedly approached Apple to prove their micro-lens array (MLA) OLED display technology that could make iPhone screens consume way less power at the current brightness levels, or, alternatively, drastically increase their brightness at the same power consumption.
It remains to be heard whether Apple will agree on applying micro-lens OLED as soon as the iPhone 16, tips The Elec, since the technology comes with its caveats, like slightly reduced brightness at sharper viewing angles.
The MLA displays use tiny lenses to alter the light path directly towards the surface of the display panel and to the user's eyes instead of having it refracted in other directions. This significantly increases the brightness of the display and consumes much less battery to achieve one and the same luminance.
Since iPhone displays are already quite shiny, what with the iPhone 14 Pro Max's advertised 2,000 nits of peak brightness, employing MLA OLED panels on the iPhone 16 may lead to a significant increase in battery life since the display is the most power-consuming component of a phone barring a processor and GPU at peak clock frequencies while gaming.
The fly in the multi-lens array OLED display ointment is that the light is refracted to the surface of the screen rather pointedly, so the side luminance hence visibility from an angle is not that great. Both Samsung and LG, however, have allegedly proposed to Apple ways to mitigate the difference in viewing angles by employing different organic light-emitting diode material that would allow sufficient light to be sent to the sides as well.
Unfortunately, that also mean higher OLED display prices than Apple pays to Samsung or LG now, so it remains to be seen if it will greenlight the use of multi-lens array OLED screens in its 2024 iPhones. This year the iPhone 15 Pro Max is expected to have a $200 higher starting price, though, so Apple will have plenty of time to gauge how willing will its fans be in accepting such price tags.
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