According to SamMobile, Samsung is developing micro-LED displays for its upcoming Galaxy line of wearable devices.
Such an idea is not very surprising, but there are questions over time. With the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 likely to arrive in late 2023, you may have to wait until the Watch 7 to see MicroLED on a Samsung watch.
The reports come after Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple plans to release an Apple Watch Ultra with an internal micro-LED display in 2024.
Currently, displays for Apple Watch OLED smartwatches are mainly supplied by LG Display, while Samsung Display makes the vast majority of OLED panels for the iPhone series.
MicroLED seems to be the new trend in display technology for mobile devices, and Samsung Display has been following it for a few years, although not as clearly as on wearables.
At CES 2018, Samsung introduced its 146-inch Small-Panel Mosaic Micro LED TV.
A range of consumer TVs with micro LED technology ranging in size from 50 to 140 inches are also expected to be launched this year. How much these expenses will be is a matter to be seen.
Some of the micro-LED panels produced so far have incredibly high pixel densities, but the three main advantages of wearable technology are high brightness, low power consumption and emissions, just like OLED panels.
Micro LEDs do not burn out and should provide excellent color rendering.
Brightness, color and contrast are not an issue for the current Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. The key question here is how much the micro-LED screen can extend the battery life of the smartwatch.
While small OLED smartwatches can last up to two weeks on a charge, this is unlikely to be a game changer. However, using the "always on" microLED display mode may reduce battery life.
The actual image quality results for micro-LED and OLED panels are somewhat comparable, but OLED does not appear to use carbon-based organic light-emitting compounds to make micro-LEDs. For OLED TVs, the most controversial over the years has been the use of organic materials under "burn-in" because the compounds produce different colors in different layers.
