2027 Apple Watch Could Adopt Next-Generation OLED Display Tech

[MacRumors]

Apple is evaluating a new OLED display backplane technology that could make future Apple Watch models more power efficient, according to a new report from Korean publication The Elec.

LG Display is said to be developing high-mobility oxide, or HMO, thin-film transistor technology for its sixth-generation small and medium-sized OLED production lines. The technology is reportedly being considered by Apple as a next-generation successor to low-temperature polycrystalline oxide, or LTPO – the TFT backplane technology currently used to enable iPhone and Apple Watch features like always-on displays and variable refresh rates.

HMO is designed to improve on conventional oxide TFT displays by increasing electron mobility (i.e., how easily electrons move through the transistor material when an electric field is applied). Mobility is important for driving OLED panels while keeping power consumption low, and The Elec says current mass-produced oxide TFTs typically offer mobility below 10 cm²/Vs (square centimeters per volt-second), whereas the industry is targeting around 30 to 50 cm²/Vs for its next-generation OLED products.

LG Display is also reportedly using a "sputtering" process that could make the technology easier to integrate into existing production lines.

Meanwhile, OLED supplier Samsung Display is said to be pursuing a different approach that uses atomic layer deposition (ALD), which involves laying down extremely thin films one atomic layer at a time. ALD is a slower process, but it suggests Samsung may be trying to create a more carefully controlled oxide transistor layer than HMO allows for.

The report goes on to suggest that the first Apple product to use LG Display's HMO technology could be next year's Apple Watch. Apple has historically tested new display backplane technologies in the Apple Watch before expanding them to larger-volume products such as the iPhone, so this could also represent an initial step towards wider adoption.

The report notes that LG Display still needs to validate the HMO technology for mass production, and that involves verifying mobility, uniformity, reliability, process temperature, and yield. As such, commercial adoption is not yet guaranteed.

So far, rumors suggest this year's Apple Watch lineup won't include any major design changes, with a redesign said to be unlikely before 2028. However, those reports don't necessarily rule out the possibility of Apple adopting the new, more power-efficient OLED technology in 2027.

Article Link: 2027 Apple Watch Could Adopt Next-Generation OLED Display Tech

 

[DMG35]

No changes to the design is not a surprise. I really hope they do something to upgrade the fitness aspects of the watch. It’s total amateur hour with the Apple Watch.

Other companies have lapped Apple in the fitness world and Apple’s laughable measuring of calories burned needs to be seriously overhauled. Its so wildly overestimates the calories burned it always makes me laugh when I look at it on my AW.

 

[TwoBytes]

All i want is better battery life and a smaller form factor.

 

[JulianL]

If a new display technology, whatever it ends up being, helps with battery life that would be great especially if it's a significant 30%+ improvement rather than a smaller 10%-ish gain.

I can always get a new battery but I'm not hugely price sensitive so I often use wanting to get back to a full-capacity battery as an excuse to upgrade my whole device and on my Apple Watch (the smallest 41mm now 42mm model) when I've skipped a cycle and ended up keeping a Watch for 2 years I end up really struggling to remember to keep it charged and often getting into the 5% or less zone or even having it die on me completely when I'm out.

The battery life is just about OK for a brand new device but once there's anything much over a 12 month wear on the battery I find that it is a real juggling act keeping it going through the day and night (I also wear it for sleep tracking). That's where I am right now with my 42mm Series 10 watch (there was no way I was going to give Apple money for such a minor Series 11 upgrade) so I'll be a day one purchaser of the Series 12 when it is released even if there are no major design changes.

I believe there have already been code leaks indicating that the Series 11 should at least get a new processor architecture which we haven't seen in the last 2 iterations. I'm not sure if that will involve a geometry shrink but hopefully even if it doesn't then architectural improvements will deliver at least some increased efficiency and, much as I was disappointed by the Series 10 to Series 11 improvements, Apple did at least claim slightly improved battery life with the series 11 so maybe an upgrade to a Series 12 this year will get me out of my current constant battle to avoid my watch charge going into the red.

 

[Whats-a-computer?]

So far, rumors suggest this year's Apple Watch lineup won't include any major design changes, with a redesign said to be unlikely before 2028.

??? https://www.macrumors.com/2026/05/18/apple-watch-ultra-4-redesign-and-blood-pressure/

 

[HaHaRich!]

All i want is better battery life and a smaller form factor.

Given that the internals of the watch are mostly battery, the only real way to do that is a die shrink, as the S10 is a 4nm manufacturing process, while the industry has shifted to a 2nm process this year for high end chips. Given the 2025 models used the same chip as the 2024 models, I’m curious if we will release see a 3nm chip this year, if not a high end 2nm (and maybe a budget friendly 3nm). I’d be surprised if TSMC wasn’t looking to phase out the less efficient 4nm fab line to make production space for higher demand chips

 

[Jason2000]

The only update to the screen I would like to see is a new shape. Add a round version to the lineup. I know they never will but one can wish.

 

[twinlight]

Make the screen work with wet fingers and solar charging. Should at least be tried for the Ultra. A tiny improvement in power usage is hardly needed.

 

[FloridaScrubJay]

The only update to the screen I would like to see is a new shape. Add a round version to the lineup. I know they never will but one can wish.

Round would make a mess of text messages.

 

[Student of Life]

Make the screen work with wet fingers and solar charging. Should at least be tried for the Ultra. A tiny improvement in power usage is hardly needed.

Does that tech exist and can fit into a small compartment like the Apple Watch without adding extra bulk ?

 

[DocMultimedia]

I'm sure the next OS will counter any gain. 🤣

 

[KeithBN]

I can confidently predict the 2027 Apple Watch will have several significant new features and be a major upgrade.

My source?

The fact that I’m planning to upgrade my series 5 watch when the 2026 model comes out pretty much guarantees it!

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Let me know when they make one that looks good.

 

[rymc02]

If a new display technology, whatever it ends up being, helps with battery life that would be great especially if it's a significant 30%+ improvement rather than a smaller 10%-ish gain.

I can always get a new battery but I'm not hugely price sensitive so I often use wanting to get back to a full-capacity battery as an excuse to upgrade my whole device and on my Apple Watch (the smallest 41mm now 42mm model) when I've skipped a cycle and ended up keeping a Watch for 2 years I end up really struggling to remember to keep it charged and often getting into the 5% or less zone or even having it die on me completely when I'm out.

The battery life is just about OK for a brand new device but once there's anything much over a 12 month wear on the battery I find that it is a real juggling act keeping it going through the day and night (I also wear it for sleep tracking). That's where I am right now with my 42mm Series 10 watch (there was no way I was going to give Apple money for such a minor Series 11 upgrade) so I'll be a day one purchaser of the Series 12 when it is released even if there are no major design changes.

I believe there have already been code leaks indicating that the Series 11 should at least get a new processor architecture which we haven't seen in the last 2 iterations. I'm not sure if that will involve a geometry shrink but hopefully even if it doesn't then architectural improvements will deliver at least some increased efficiency and, much as I was disappointed by the Series 10 to Series 11 improvements, Apple did at least claim slightly improved battery life with the series 11 so maybe an upgrade to a Series 12 this year will get me out of my current constant battle to avoid my watch charge going into the red.

Thats crazy. I have a series 4 that I wore consistently up until last year. I could do 30-60 minutes of exercise tracking plus all day wear and never had an issue of it not making it to the end of the day...I wore it everyday for almost 7 years.

 

[ngextreme]

Come on Apple. Make a watch that lasts 15 days and has comparable fitness tracking to Garmin. Fed up having to swap watches over to use it for a specific task.

 

[JulianL]

Thats crazy. I have a series 4 that I wore consistently up until last year. I could do 30-60 minutes of exercise tracking plus all day wear and never had an issue of it not making it to the end of the day...I wore it everyday for almost 7 years.

Did you wear it overnight though? When new I could keep it going for 24 hours with a single 30 minute charge each morning while I was showering, brushing my teeth etc. Now I need to do that plus another similar charge in the evening and if I forget either one of them, which I probably do about twice a week, I end up not realising until I get the red battery low warnings and then have to leave it on the charger for an hour or so which is frustrating because I like to always have my watch on.

As well as wearing it overnight I also do more like 2 hours of workout tracking each day and sometimes 3 or 4 hours (I do lots of outdoor walks) so that might also partly account for my worse experiences and maybe an hour of tracking a walk is worse than an hour of tracking more static workouts because there are pretty much continuous location changes involved.

 

[johannnn]

That's where I am right now with my 42mm Series 10 watch

Battery life is

Ultra >> 46mm > 42mm

So yea can’t be easy to have an 1-2 year old 42mm

I have the S11 46mm but will go for Ultra next time 🙂

 

[BigMcGuire]

Battery life is

Ultra >> 46mm > 42mm

So yea can’t be easy to have an 1-2 year old 42mm

I have the S11 46mm but will go for Ultra next time 🙂

Loving my Apple Watch Ultra 3. With my setup, I'm using about 25-27% of battery per day. My wife's Apple Watch 11 easily lasts her two days.

 

[Flight Plan]

No changes to the design is not a surprise. I really hope they do something to upgrade the fitness aspects of the watch. It’s total amateur hour with the Apple Watch.

Other companies have lapped Apple in the fitness world and Apple’s laughable measuring of calories burned needs to be seriously overhauled. Its so wildly overestimates the calories burned it always makes me laugh when I look at it on my AW.

Fitness works fine. But even if you have a legitimate complaint, I'd never know it.

You use words like "amateur hour", "lapped Apple" (like it's a race or something), "laughable", and "makes me laugh", as if everybody else is naturally ONLY going to agree with you. It's a language trick you're using here and it actually hurts your case to somebody like me who has no point of reference into the Apple Watch's potentially flexible accuracy.

Are other manufacturers better than the Apple Watch? Maybe. Maybe not. Every watch is going to suffer in some way because the health sensors are looking at the BACK of our wrists, not the inside of our wrists, where all of the electrical and plumbing infrastructures are routed. In any event, you certainly haven't made the case in your own post, as loaded as it was with colorful words. Is the Apple Watch good enough for most people? Hell yes. The heart features alone are saving people's lives like crazy.

If you have a complaint about the accuracy of calories burned (or any other metric), then get with Apple supoort and voice your concerns. Or go to an Apple Store and ask a Genius if they know of any ways to fine-tune the accuracy on that metric.

Or consider getting an auxiliary device, such as a Hume Band, which is designed to be worn on the inside of the wrist. Then compare the numbers from that with what you get from your watch. Sure, there will be some differences, because those veins and nerves are much easier to "see" on the inside of your wrist than on the outside.

And do bear in mind that every human body is different. You and I could go through a full day of exactly the same activities, exactly the same food intake, and exactly the same amount of sleep, and all other factors also being equal. And you and I will never burn the same amount of calories. So take this into account; there's always going to be a range...or a variance, if you will. And variances, as long as they are known and reasonably thin, MUST be acceptable, or else we just can't have a useful conversation.

And really, I'd like to know what other manufacturers you think are more accurate with calories-burned, and how you come to that conclusion. More details would be helpful; not just a name-calling session.

 

[rymc02]

Did you wear it overnight though? When new I could keep it going for 24 hours with a single 30 minute charge each morning while I was showering, brushing my teeth etc. Now I need to do that plus another similar charge in the evening and if I forget either one of them, which I probably do about twice a week, I end up not realising until I get the red battery low warnings and then have to leave it on the charger for an hour or so which is frustrating because I like to always have my watch on.

As well as wearing it overnight I also do more like 2 hours of workout tracking each day and sometimes 3 or 4 hours (I do lots of outdoor walks) so that might also partly account for my worse experiences and maybe an hour of tracking a walk is worse than an hour of tracking more static workouts because there are pretty much continuous location changes involved.

No, I hate wearing the watch to bed, so it charged every night. Only giving a 30 minute charge will probably degrade the battery faster than allowing it to trickle charge to full all night on a 5watt charger.

 

[JulianL]

No, I hate wearing the watch to bed, so it charged every night. Only giving a 30 minute charge will probably degrade the battery faster than allowing it to trickle charge to full all night on a 5watt charger.

Thanks for the clarification. I think that explains the biggest reason why you have less of a fight with your battery life than I do.

You're probably right about the fast charge vs slower trickle charge as well and that's probably another factor. Apple does promote the benefits of wearing an Apple Watch at night and adding extra new(ish) night time features like sleep apnea detection so it's a valid use case and I think pretty much necessitates my rather more brutal bursts of brief fast charging to keep my watch going unless I'm willing to not have it on my wrist for a few hours during the day while it's trickle charging (which I'm not).

You're clearly not doing anything wrong wearing it only during the day, that's traditional wrist watch use established over more than a century, but similarly in today's world with all the night time health features offered I'm not doing anything unreasonable either so I do think that Apple has more work to do to help the almost 24/7 watch wearers like me avoid too much battery anxiety and not be virtually forced into degrading their batteries to unacceptable levels within 18 months.

Technology does march on and I'm sure Apple will get there with a combination of hardware optimisations, maybe small space savings in other components for marginal increases in battery capacity, and (I can only dream) more exotic battery chemistry one day although to me that last one feels a bit like nuclear fusion - always just around the corner but never quite there yet as in commercially viable and in production.

 

[TwoBytes]

Given that the internals of the watch are mostly battery, the only real way to do that is a die shrink, as the S10 is a 4nm manufacturing process, while the industry has shifted to a 2nm process this year for high end chips. Given the 2025 models used the same chip as the 2024 models, I’m curious if we will release see a 3nm chip this year, if not a high end 2nm (and maybe a budget friendly 3nm). I’d be surprised if TSMC wasn’t looking to phase out the less efficient 4nm fab line to make production space for higher demand chips

Thanks for the tech analysis! I didn't know. Rethinking this, then it looks like one avenue is for apple ot just redesign the watch into a band or different screen with less happening so they can give 7 or 14 day battery life like other devices that are more minimal.

 

[honglong1976]

- improved battery life
- more fitness features (training readiness - more metrics)
- Touch ID
- 24/7 HR

 

[jole]

I hope Apple does not chase for a smaller form factor while keeping the battery life the same. Ones who want a smaller watch should not choose Ultra.

Ultra design is perfect, just squeeze in as much battery life as possible.

 

[DMG35]

Fitness works fine. But even if you have a legitimate complaint, I'd never know it.

You use words like "amateur hour", "lapped Apple" (like it's a race or something), "laughable", and "makes me laugh", as if everybody else is naturally ONLY going to agree with you. It's a language trick you're using here and it actually hurts your case to somebody like me who has no point of reference into the Apple Watch's potentially flexible accuracy.

Are other manufacturers better than the Apple Watch? Maybe. Maybe not. Every watch is going to suffer in some way because the health sensors are looking at the BACK of our wrists, not the inside of our wrists, where all of the electrical and plumbing infrastructures are routed. In any event, you certainly haven't made the case in your own post, as loaded as it was with colorful words. Is the Apple Watch good enough for most people? Hell yes. The heart features alone are saving people's lives like crazy.

If you have a complaint about the accuracy of calories burned (or any other metric), then get with Apple supoort and voice your concerns. Or go to an Apple Store and ask a Genius if they know of any ways to fine-tune the accuracy on that metric.

Or consider getting an auxiliary device, such as a Hume Band, which is designed to be worn on the inside of the wrist. Then compare the numbers from that with what you get from your watch. Sure, there will be some differences, because those veins and nerves are much easier to "see" on the inside of your wrist than on the outside.

And do bear in mind that every human body is different. You and I could go through a full day of exactly the same activities, exactly the same food intake, and exactly the same amount of sleep, and all other factors also being equal. And you and I will never burn the same amount of calories. So take this into account; there's always going to be a range...or a variance, if you will. And variances, as long as they are known and reasonably thin, MUST be acceptable, or else we just can't have a useful conversation.

And really, I'd like to know what other manufacturers you think are more accurate with calories-burned, and how you come to that conclusion. More details would be helpful; not just a name-calling session.

Lol I don’t have to do any of that, thanks though. And yes, Apple is way behind in terms of fitness tracking. It’s not my responsibility to explain to you how far Apple is behind but when you compare their fitness tracking to Garmin, Whoop, and now google (which I have) they are way WAY behind. It’s amatuer hour because they don’t do any real tracking and show you anyth of value.

Multiple tests have all confirmed that Apple’s calorie tracking is way over estimated. I don’t have to get with Apple Support to voice my concern, it’s just a fact. And you clearly have never used other fitness trackers or you would know this. I’ve used multiple other fitness trackers as have others and Apple’s calories burned are many times twice what they are from other manufacturers. Apple doesn’t have to be perfect but many times they aren’t even close.

Also, don’t ever speak to me like you’re my teacher and I’m your student who needs to learn. Your tone is condensing and honestly insulting so don’t do it. I voiced my opinion on Apples fitness capabilities and you don’t have to agree but don’t speak to another member here like you are here to show them the way. You are absolutely not.