Google Pixel 3 Teardown Shows an LG-Made OLED Display: iFixit

Just a day after the Pixel 3 XL was spotted featuring an AMOLED panel from Samsung, a teardown carried out by iFixit has now revealed the presence of an LG OLED display on Google Pixel 3. This is unlike the last year Pixel family that had the larger, Pixel 2 XL with a panel from LG and the smaller, Pixel 2 with a Samsung display. Google didn't reveal the switching between the two South Korean companies for making the display panels of its Pixel 3 models.

The iFixit team notes in its teardown that it's a "full reversal" from last year. In terms of build and construction, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are quite similar. iFixit has given both a repairability score of 4 out of 10. The smartphones are also vulnerable to drop damage due to their front and back glass panels and have a large amount of glue.

However, coming back to the display panels, the teardown has revealed that Google has picked LG for giving the 5.5-inch full-HD+ (1080x2160 pixels) flexible OLED display on the Pixel 3. This comes alongside the fact that the company ditched LG and favour Samsung for offering a larger, 6.3-inch QHD+ (1440x2960 pixels) flexible OLED display on the Pixel 3 XL. The major difference between the display panels of the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, apart from their display sizes, is the presence of a notch on the latter.

Photo Credit: iFixit

The Pixel 3 XL's notch is similar to the one featured on the iPhone X last year, and it is worth noting here that Samsung also emerged as the manufacturer of the iPhone X display. The notch, therefore, could be one of the reasons why the company chose the South Korean giant for making the display panel of its bigger Pixel model this year. It's also notable that LG's display panel on the last year Pixel flagship had a blue tint that largely impacted the viewing experience.

However, it appears that LG has improved the quality of its OLED display a lot as detailed reviews, including ours, weren't able to spot any inferior results. The display panel of the Pixel 3 is, in fact, offers as good results as the display of the Pixel 3 XL. Google also highlighted some identical specs on both panels, including full 24-bit depth with 16.77 million colours and 100,000:1 super contrast ratio.

Can Google Pixel 3 succeed in India without massive discounts? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.