Samsung to Use microLED Displays for Its Future Galaxy Series Smartwatches: Report

Samsung Display reportedly started a microLED display development project last year.

Written by Nithya P Nair, Edited by Richa Sharma | Updated: 13 January 2023 17:13 IST

Samsung to Use microLED Displays for Its Future Galaxy Series Smartwatches: Report

Photo Credit: Samsung

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 has an OLED screen

Highlights

MicroLED screens are more difficult to produce than OLED displays
Apple is planning to start using microLED displays for its wearables
MicroLED display technology offers brighter screens

Samsung is reportedly planning to incorporate microLED displays for its future Galaxy series wearables. Currently, the South Korean electronics manufacturer uses microLED technology for its high-end smart TVs and packs OLED displays for its Galaxy smartwatch lineups. It also supplies smartwatch OLED panels to other brands including Apple. Compared to TFT and OLED screens, microLED is a superior display technology with a higher colour gamut and less power consumption. Samsung Display reportedly started a microLED display development project last year and assigned a team to commercialise microLED displays for smartwatches. Apple is also rumoured to use new screens on its high-end wearables from next year.

As per a report by ETNews, Samsung Display set up a team by end of last year to commercialise microLED displays for Galaxy smartwatches. The team reportedly aims to complete the development within this year.

Samsung's premium smart TVs come with microLED displays and these are manufactured by Samsung Electronics itself. Samsung's Display division is considering microLED as next-generation display technology and is targeting smartwatches as its first product, the report added.

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The microLED display has a considerably high resolution, colour contrast ratio and brightness. The superior display technology potentially offers less power consumption and better visibility under direct sunlight as well.

If this report holds any weight, then next year's Galaxy smartwatches might debut with new displays.

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A recent report claimed that Apple is gearing up to use its own custom displays in its mobile devices from 2024 onwards. It is reportedly planning to replace the current OLED standard with microLED technology. This would allow the Cupertino-based company to lessen its relay on Samsung Electronics and LG. Apple intends to begin by swapping out the display in high-end Apple Watches by the end of next year. Eventually, the company may bring these displays to other products including iPhone models.

Are affordable smartwatches worth it? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Further reading: Samsung, Samsung Display, microLED, microLED Technology, OLED display, Samsung Galaxy Smartwatch

Nithya P Nair

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Nithya P Nair is a journalist with more than five years of experience in digital journalism. She specialises in business and technology beats. A foodie at heart, Nithya loves exploring new places (read cuisines) and sneaking in Malayalam movie dialogues to spice up conversations. More