Rumors about Apple ditching Samsung as a display supplier have been around for years now. Actually, it was believed that Chinese-based BOE would step up and make the OLED screens for 2020’s iPhone 12 series, but the company failed to deliver its first shipment to Apple due to quality control problems and validation issues.
The exact share of BOE-made OLED screens in the iPhone 12 family remains unclear but the company reportedly upped its game and managed to deliver some OLED panels for the iPhone 13 base models.
The latest estimates suggest that between 10 and 20% of all iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 devices use BOE displays. Now, according to a new report from The Elec, BOE is looking to further improve its manufacturing processes and will try to supply LTPO displays for the flagship iPhone 15 models in 2023.
Up until now, the more advanced variable refresh rate OLED panels (iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max) have been all manufactured by Samsung and LG (mostly Samsung). The LTPO tech allows the phone to lower its refresh rate when displaying static images, conserving energy, while bumping it up when scrolling or viewing moving scenes.
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are expected to come with the same 120Hz variable refresh rate panels seen in the upper range of the iPhone 13 series. Apparently, BOE won’t make the cut to deliver the LTPO screen for the iPhone 14 flagships but the Chinese company will continue to supply panels for the lower-tier models.
LTPO is a fancy acronym for Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide, and it describes the materials used to manufacture the display panel and its little pixels. Up until the LTPO tech became available, phones and other gadgets all used LTPS technology. That’s another acronym - Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon, and as you can see, the difference is tiny.
Apple developed LTPO display tech for its Apple Watch Series 5
Without getting too technical, we can try to explain what one word in an abbreviation can do for a smartphone display. The old LTPS tech needs additional hardware to switch its refresh rate, and phones like the OnePlus 8 Pro can only switch between 60Hz and 120Hz.
The LTPO displays, on the other hand, use different material for the transistors that drive the pixels (it’s Indium gallium zinc oxide - IGZO) which allows the phone to run at virtually any refresh rate in a certain range - in the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra case - from 1Hz to 120Hz with everything in between.
Pros and cons of LTPO displays
The obvious benefit of running a smartphone screen at 1Hz refresh rate is battery life. Although OLED screens are energy efficient by design, it takes power to switch on and off each pixel, even when the image is not changing.
With LTPO, smart algorithms can detect a static image and lower the refresh rate down to 1Hz to save battery. When you start scrolling or the image changes, the display can very quickly go up to 120Hz for the smoothest possible experience.
There’s only one big drawback to this technology and it is its price. In the past, LTPO and IGZO displays required bigger pixels to operate and the resulting resolution wasn’t top of the crops but not that’s been sorted out and the manufacturing costs remain the sole concern.
Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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