This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

A new study claims that Apple could tap Samsung's manufacturing expertise for future generations of the iPhone. In and of itself, that's zilch new, only instead of manufacturing an SoC with the Korean company, Apple might want to buy into Samsung'due south OLED brandish technology. That would be a marked shift from several years agone, when Tim Cook blasted OLED engineering science as fundamentally junior to the iPhone's display.

So once more, at the time, Cook was right. OLED technology has continued to evolve in the near three years since Cook fabricated his statements. The best fashion to evaluate the relative position of each technology is through the extensive database of information available at DisplayMate. While Dr. Soneira hasn't directly compared the Galaxy Annotation 5 against the iPhone 6 / 6 Plus, he uses a standard serial of tests that allow for some homegrown comparison between the two.

Curlicue through each written report, and you'll detect that each device has a few areas where information technology wins out over the other. OLED displays have excellent off-bending viewing, the iPhone'southward image contrast is slightly better, but the Galaxy Annotation 5 has amend color accuracy. Overall, the Note 5 takes habitation an A in this category, compared to the iPhone six Plus's A-. The iPhone 6 family is much brighter (good for direct sunlight), and reflects very slightly less low-cal.

iPhoneDisplayPower The iPhone family vs. the Galaxy Notation

Note5

Power consumption is where things become especially interesting. According to Dr. Soneira'due south data, the iPhone six Plus and the Galaxy Notation 5 are fairly well matched. Note that the displays are of two different sizes — the Note five'due south total screen area is 13.7 sq. inches, compared to 12.9 sq. inches for the iPhone 6 Plus. Withal, the two compare well — the Galaxy Notation v has an average power level far lower than that of the iPhone half dozen Plus. Truthful, Apple'southward current LCD engineering science wins the maximum power comparison, but how many people regularly fix their device to a blank white background? Non many.

We contacted Dr. Soneira for additional information on this potential lucifer-up. He notes that "The OLED / LCD Ability Efficiency Crossover is currently at 67 percentage APL (Average Motion-picture show Level): The OLED brandish on the Galaxy Notation 5 is more power efficient for APLs less than 67 percent, and the LCD display on the iPhone 6 Plus is more power efficient for APLs greater than 67 per centum." Power efficiency will also exist unlike between the red, green, and bluish primaries, which is why Dr. Soneira compares peak whiteness as opposed to a different color.

It's interesting to note how the Note displays have evolved compared to the iPhone. The Note 5 uses six% less power than the Notation 4 at the same brightness level and 17% less power at maximum brightness. Overall efficiency is roughly 21% better at the aforementioned screen size. The iPhone half-dozen Plus, in contrast, was slightly less efficient than the iPhone 5 (relative to screen size).

Given that Apple already uses LTPS (low temperature polysilicon) for its iPhone displays, the company may well be looking for additional advances that tin can cut power consumption and meliorate overall display quality. Whether that volition translate into tapping Samsung for futurity displays remains to be seen. Hypersatured backgrounds and vibrant colors are a hallmark of Samsung's Galaxy and Note products, while Apple typically prefers a color residue that tilts slightly towards blue. We suspect that whatever understanding between the two would crave that Apple not tune its LCDs to look overly much like Samsung's hardware (not that Cupertino is probable to wish to do so in any case).

Of course, the flip side to this is that evaluating OLED technology is something that Apple likely does on a regular basis. Manufacturers regularly examination new hardware developments as they become available, and with the iPhone 6S / 6S Plus having recently launched, the time is right for Apple tree to be investigating new technologies it could introduce in the next 12-24 months.