The iPhone Duo’s most expensive part is coming to an Android phone
The iPhone Duo was the first smartphone to feature Samsung Display's latest and greatest M16 OLED material in its screen. And now it's coming to Android.
iQOO 16 to use the same display material as the iPhone Duo
The inner display of the iPhone Duo uses Samsung's M16 material and it is one of the most expensive parts in that phone. | Image by Apple
The writing was already on the wall for the iQOO 16. The gaming flagship was rumored to feature a 2K OLED panel with a 165Hz refresh rate from Samsung. iQOO has now confirmed that rumor via a post on Weibo.
The iQOO 16 is coming this month. | Image by Weibo
The company has detailed some of the specs of its upcoming phone, including the aforementioned 2K resolution and 165Hz refresh rate. The same M16 OLED material that the iPhone Duo uses can be found inside the iQOO 16's display.
10,000 nits of local brightness
The Galaxy S26 Ultra was the first Samsung phone to ditch the polarizer. The iQOO 16 will come with LEAD 2 technology. | Image by Samsung
iQOO says that the iQOO 16 will be able to reach 2,800 nits of global brightness and 10,000 nits of local brightness. And while this sounds impressive, local brightness varies a lot depending on how big the measured zone of the display is.
OLED screens work like a garden hose: if you squeeze, you'll get more pressure. Similarly, if you focus the energy on a very small area of the display, you'll get very high brightness figures.
iQOO shared some of the display specs of its upcoming flagship. | Image by Weibo
This impressive brightness has been achieved by using a technology called LEAD. It eliminates the polarizer in the OLED construction, thus reducing the brightness loss from light passing through this component. The iQOO 16 will come equipped with the second iteration of the tech, called LEAD 2.
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Further down the spec sheet, we find a 508 ppi pixel density, wide P3 color coverage, DC dimming, and better color uniformity due to sub-pixel-level calibration.
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The new M16 OLED panels are very efficient
The spec that's the least impressive at first sight could prove to be one of the most important ones. Samsung claims that the new M16 displays use 31% less power at 150 nits (a normal indoor brightness), which could be huge for battery life.
This could be the reason behind the impressive 31 hours of video playback cited by Apple for the iPhone Duo using its inner 7.6-inch foldable display.
The Galaxy S27 Ultra will feature the same tech
The Galaxy S27 Ultra will feature the same M16 display material as the iPhone Duo. | Image by TheGalox_ on X
The upcoming flagship is expected to boast the same M16 display as the iPhone Duo and the iQOO 16, possibly tuned even better.
We're yet to get real-life battery usage figures from the iPhone Duo, but it seems that this new display material is much easier on the battery and could be the next piece of the puzzle to allow solid two-day battery life on future smartphones.
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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