Samsung takes $3.1B gamble on OLED displays for tablets and notebooks Samsung Electronics will pour $3.14 billion into production of advanced organic light-emitting-diode displays (OLED) for use in tablets and notebooks by 2026, betting it's the future for fondleslabs and laptops. While OLED displays have been a popular option for high-end televisions and smartphones, where the technology's per- …
Pre-pandemic, clients had pretty much all moved to a 5 year refresh cycle on PCs and laptops. Lately we've been doing refreshes for clients and finding the old kit coming out is often 6 or more years old. And there's fewer of them doing significant estate refreshes since most of them were buying hand over fist in early to mid 2020 and that kit is only 3 years old and expected to last at least another 2 years, more likely 3 or 4 more years.
There really isn't the major year on year major improvements in laptops or PCs and hasn't been for 10 years or so. The primary reason for estate refreshes these days is simply the age of the kit, not it's productivity value. The older the kit gets, the more likely it will have a hardware fail which is often not worth paying to repair on 5+ year old kit out of warranty. I'm not seeing OEMs offering warranties beyond 5 years yet. Some larger clients will have some IT support people with hardware experience and they are using parts from scrappers to make working kit. If you can swap a screen or keyboard into an other wise working laptop in 10-20 mins, that's an economic win, potentially saving anything from a £100 up to a £1000 per 20 minute fix.
I have an AMOLED screened phone (POCO X4) and they have removed the option to NEVER have the screen automatically turn off due to fears of burn-in, so we are right back where we were with CRT screens only lighter and higher resolution. When I replace this phone I'm going to try to find one that doesn't have OLED so I can once again be allowed to choose when the screen stays on, as I have for the last 10 or so years.
I've had nothing but OLED screens for over 10 years and no problem with burn in. There are, or were, problems with different colour pixels ageing differently, with blue ageing faster. The "always on" screen of my S10e is still going strong.
As for choice: you may not have much in an industry that tends to move in lock step.
Thanks. So if it's not because of OLED burn-in can anyone in the Android Smartphone industry tell me why the "Never" option was removed? Why remove an option that worked just fine for many of us previously?
I am pretty sick and tired of "tech" that tells me how I must use it, rather than the other way around. Software that makes THE WRONG decision for me is really getting my goat these days. When I click once in a word I DO NOT want it to select all of the word and when I select a word with the mouse I DO NOT WANT it to select the whole sentence for me. Roll on retirement so I can tell the whole tech world to do one!!
My old Nokia N9 had an OLED screen. Yes, the contrast and colour depth were very nice, but the big advantage that it sipped power, even when set to permanently show the time (the default). This is more important for a laptop than for a gigantic TV screen, I'd say.
-A.
IMHO the current LCD's are "good enough" for tablets and notebooks and cheap and easy to produce. OLED displays will almost surely bump up the price, which is something most consumers don't want in these economically uncertain times.
The deep blacks and faster response times are nice, but no deal-breaker for me. Worse case (for Samsung) the price of OLED displays will fall to the level of LCD's, squeezing their profits.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2023
