Dirt cheap phones with OLED display? We'll take it, Samsung!
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Samsung continues to bring its flagship phone features downmarket and there is great news to be had for cheap Samsung phones. Even the $199 Galaxy A14, which can be had as a T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, or unlocked model directly from Samsung, for instance, now comes with 5G network connectivity.
That's a feat that just two years ago was only reserved for expensive Samsung handsets, not something you can get for two Benjamins! Samsung, however, isn't done upgrading its budget 5G phones, and is upping their display quality next.
The Galaxy A15 5G is getting an OLED display!
One more thing, said Samsung, and decided to equip even its budget phones with OLED screens. While the Galaxy A14 is all fine and dandy with its 5G modem and next-gen network connectivity at a sub-$200 price, it does skimp on many modern features to arrive at that pricing. Chief among those is that window to the world, its display, which is still of the low-res LCD variety.
Next year, however, Samsung will be installing modern OLED display technology in the lowly Galaxy A1X series, too, report The Elec's supply chain sources. This means that the Samsung Galaxy A15, which is sold in the many millions, will get a much desired OLED display upgrade and enjoy the deep blacks, high contrast, and lower power consumption that are inherent to the technology.
While on the face of it the superior OLED display technology would be more expensive for Samsung to produce which could eventually diminish its profit margin from its bestselling A-series, there's more to it. It turns out that the A2 OLED production for cheaper panels with glass instead of flexible plastic substrates that Samsung puts in its more expensive phones, is underutilized.
When Samsung includes an OLED display in the Galaxy A15 specs, it will be able to plump the production rate of the A2 line and achieve vast economies of scale that will eventually make an OLED screen for the Galaxy A15 cheaper to make than an LCD one. Thus, Samsung may kill two birds with one stone - anoint its sub-$200 phones with modern display technology, and keep production costs in check - just as its finance department may have ordered in these trying time for the industry.
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